


What was my daddy like?

by melicitysmoak



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, Canon only up to 7x16, Drama, Family, Felicity Smoak not dying, Friendship, Future spec fic, Happy Ending, Love, Mia Smoak growing up without Oliver Queen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Multi, Oliver Queen not dead, Siblings, legacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2019-11-21 12:17:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18142094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melicitysmoak/pseuds/melicitysmoak
Summary: [Future Spec Fic, takes off from the Season 7 flashforwards, canon until 7x16 only]Mia Smoak grows up without ever knowing her father, Oliver Queen, also known as the Green Arrow.  She loves her mother, Felicity Smoak, and secretly admires her, but their relationship is rocky.  They get separated like before, but this time Mia is afraid that her mom is in real danger, so she sets off to find her.  In an unexpected turn of events, she meets her half-brother William and his companions, who are also trying to unravel the mystery of Felicity's apparent demise and why the genius wife of the former Green Arrow brought them all together after almost two decades.  Mia has been isolated for most of her young life, but the few relationships she makes helps her put together the puzzle pieces of what her father was like.  It's up to her to decide what to make of it all.





	1. Mom & Mia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anned](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anned/gifts).



> It's been quite some time since I've written or posted anything, because I wasn't planning to anymore (as some of you might recall). I was supposed to close this account last December, but because real life has been hectic since the holiday break (what an understatement), I hadn't found the time to sort through all the fics in my Bookmarks and save the ones I really loved before I did so, which is why I am still here. And now that it has been announced that Arrow will be ending after Season 8x10, I thought it was fitting to write a farewell fic - dedicated to our beloved show, ship, and characters, and also to everyone here at AO3 who had taken the time to read anything I've posted in here, especially those that had become virtual friends. This will be my last fic before moving on with life, so I really hope you like this. Thank you in advance for reading. I am grateful.

Felicity thought her little girl was much too young to be watching crime fighting videos of her father. Rare footages of the Green Arrow and his team, which she had managed to save in an encrypted file from the bunker before their family had to flee Star City almost five years ago, were certainly not of the rated-G type of shows that Mia was ordinarily allowed to watch. But her daughter had been fussing all day because she'd somehow caught the flu bug even if they hardly ever left their safe house in the woods - the one that John and Lyla Diggle had found for them somewhere between Star City and Central City. Felicity knew that letting Mia watch her daddy in action was the only thing she hadn't tried that day that would surely calm down her child from her incessant whining in between sneezes and sniffles.

Seeing Oliver. That was Mia's go-to place each time she was upset or anxious or annoyed. When Mia turned four recently and discovered how to read, she had learned how to get into the files in her mother's tablet, including the ones that were password protected. Felicity couldn't figure out how, but considering her daughter had been able to open files just by memorizing what certain icons looked like at age two, she had resigned herself that it must have been the genes - her intelligence and Oliver's persistence. And oh, how Mia loved watching her daddy on screen. Felicity often found it funny how she'd catch Mia staring at the tablet with wide-eyed attention, with a red pen stuck in between her teeth, only for the pen to fall as the little girl screamed with glee and clapped her hands when the Green Arrow finally puts down and knocks out an opponent. Sometimes Felicity thought it wasn't a good idea to expose her daughter to violence this early, but the ache she felt for her daughter growing up without her father always got the better of her, so she obliged each time Mia asked for it.

She knew that one of these days her little girl would be ready to be trained to fight and fend for herself, and she wanted this for her daughter's safety. Even if she didn't do the pep talk with Mia soon, her daughter would ask for it anyway, what with all the action she'd seen her daddy do in the videos. At four, Mia did a pretty good job of imitating her father's posture and stance, including his broody, serious face.

Felicity approached her daughter who was lying down on their bed, propped up on pillows, leaning back against the headboard. Mia was much too engrossed with watching Oliver giving a speech to the people of Star City, dressed in green leather with his hood on and his quiver strapped to his back. The little girl's lips were moving, as if mimicking what her father was saying on screen. It wasn't until Felicity sat down on their bed that Mia noticed she had company and her viewing was about to end.

"How's my little Mia Star?" Felicity asked, using the pet name that she and Oliver had come up with when their daughter was just a few days old. Since the day Mia was born, she and Oliver had felt that their daughter had become their new source of hope and light to keep fighting for a better life, a better future. 

"Feeling better?"

"Uh-huh," Mia replied with her tiny voice, as she looked up at her mother for a second.

Mia then went back to looking at the screen. The Green Arrow’s speech was over. She had clicked on another video, the one that showed Oliver Queen admitting to the city that he was the green-hooded vigilante. That was his well-kept secret for six years, but Felicity had never kept Oliver’s dual identity from Mia ever since the little girl was old enough to understand. Felicity knew that Mia had to know, so that she would understand why they had to live this kind of life.

“Well, kiddo, I think that’s enough for tonight. It’s way past your bedtime. You need to rest if you’re going to get well soon.”

“Just one more vid, please?” the little blonde girl pleaded. Her puppy dog eyes were watery, not from the begging but from the eye strain.

“Okay, just one more. But maybe not that one,” Felicity said, closing the current video. She picked a video of Oliver’s television interview with Earth-2 Laurel. She wanted Mia to know that her father had not always been on the wrong side of the law. “This one,” she said, clicking on the file.

They watched the video together. Mia was engaged in it, listening to every word her father spoke. Felicity was getting teary-eyed, as she reminisced those days gone by. She really missed her husband.

As the interview came to a close, Mia suddenly clicked pause, much to Felicity’s surprise. She looked up at her mother and asked, “Mom, what was my daddy like?”

Stunned by her daughter’s sudden interest, Felicity was unable to respond at first. Mia had watched videos of Oliver before, but this was the first time she had ever asked such a question after viewing. “What do you mean?” was all she could say.

“Well… I know what daddy looked like. He was big. And strong. And brave. And very handsome. Specially without a mask,” Mia said enthusiastically. “But what kind of person was he?”

Felicity took a deep breath to ground herself. She wasn’t expecting to have this conversation with Mia at the time. She had had a long day, upgrading the security protocols of the safe house while taking care of her sick child. All day long she had been thinking about whether or not there was still a chance that Oliver might still be alive after all these years. She had already cried a few times, especially after chatting with John on a secure channel. She also missed their family; she hadn’t seen him, Lyla, and JJ for almost a year, hadn’t seen the rest of Team Arrow for longer than that. But most of all, she really missed Oliver; she hadn’t seen her husband since Mia had learned to crawl. Oliver had missed so much of Mia’s beautiful, albeit secluded, growing years.

Clearing her throat and holding her tears at bay, Felicity answered, “Your daddy was a wonderful person, Mia. He suffered a lot during his younger years, and that made him very lonely. But through the years since I’d known him, he changed. Little by little. He became someone different. Someone better. He learned to use his amazing abilities to save people’s lives, to right his family’s wrongs, to fight for what was right. A lot of people couldn’t understand why he did what he did. And yes, he wasn’t perfect. He’d made some mistakes, but that didn’t keep him from doing everything he could to protect the people of our city, and of the world. Your daddy was a real hero, Mia.”

“A hero…” Mia whispered, followed by a sigh. “What’s a hero?”

Felicity smiled at her daughter and answered, “A hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice an awful lot for the good of other people. A hero always thinks of others first. A hero will do everything to protect the ones he loves.”

“Is that why daddy had to go away?” Mia asked, this time with a tinge of sadness in her eyes.

“Yes,” Felicity replied just as sadly. “Daddy and I agreed that he had to say goodbye to us to keep us safe.”

“Is he ever coming back?”

“…”

“Mom?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. He had to leave, knowing that he might never be able to come back to us.”

“But why?” Mia asked again. This time, tears were pooling in her eyes.

“Cause that’s what heroes do,” was her mother’s reply, “for the sake of the ones they love.”

Mia remained quiet for a while as she snuggled closer to her mother’s side, letting the tablet slide off her lap onto the bed. Then she said, “Are you going to leave me, too, Mom?”

Felicity gasped at the question that her little girl had just raised. She had never thought that their situation might worsen and she would one day have to do what Oliver had done years ago. She swallowed hard and asked, “Why would you ask that, my star? You know I’ll always be there for you.”

“You love me, don’t you?” Mia asked.

“Of course. With all my heart.”

“Then one day, you might have to do what daddy did… because you love me.”

“Mia,” Felicity said, looking her daughter straight in the eye, “I love you so much. You are the most important person in my life. You’re all I have left. But I have to think about what’s best for you. So, if it comes to that, and you and I have to be separated for a time, I won’t think twice about doing it, if it’s the only choice I have to keep you safe. Do you understand?”

Mia nodded in understanding, but her face was downcast. She didn’t like what he mother said, but she knew in her tiny, tender heart that her mother loved her, however strange the ways she showed it were. She also didn’t quite like how a hero, like her dad, had to make sacrifices like leaving their family. She wasn’t sure what to make of it yet. She’d think about that later. She, however, had to be sure of one thing.

“Mom?”

“Yes?”

“Did my daddy love me?”

Felicity smiled as a tear finally escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek. She nodded and said, “More than you can ever know, Mia. More than you can ever know. You were his world, and mine, too. We both love you, very, very much.”

Mother and daughter hugged and slid down on the bed. Felicity kissed her child’s forehead and stroked her hair. Within minutes, they both fell asleep.


	2. Nyssa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this got delayed a day. I wanted to see what 7x16 had in store so that the storyline of this fic would be consistent with canon as much as possible. (And boy, was that episode terrific, in my opinion.) With that, I went back to Chapter 1 and did a few minor tweaks to accommodate the new reveals in 7x16. You might want to go back and reread. 
> 
> I really liked the idea that Nyssa got to train Mia as she grew up (instead of my initial and hesitant hunch that Black Siren, the only other person who knew about the existence of Olicity's daughter, might have been the one), so I used that important arc in this chapter. This chapter is told mostly from her and Mia's POVs. Hope you like it!

Mia loved it when Aunt Nyssa came for her week-long visits.  At least there was one more person that she could interact with in their isolated house in the woods in the fringes of a little-known town.  And it wasn’t just because her “aunt” had an intriguing foreign accent, an odd outfit of drab colors that looked more suitable for a grown man than a beautiful dark-haired woman, and an aura of mystery about her that piqued Mia’s curiosity.  It was because Aunt Nyssa could fight a lot like her father.

Nyssa had come for her first visit a few months after Mia’s fourth birthday.  Her mom had introduced her to Mia as a very good friend of hers and her dad’s, someone who had fought alongside the Green Arrow a number of times against villains that wanted to hurt innocent people.  Nyssa initially just wanted Mia to call her by her first name because she and Felicity had decided that it was too complicated for the little girl to understand what the rest of her Arabic name and title literally meant.  Later on, their relationship as mentor-trainer and apprentice had developed quite well, and eventually, it had become a more personal relationship.  Mia had come to think of Nyssa as family, thus calling her an aunt even if they were not related by blood. 

Technically, Nyssa was Mia’s father’s first wife by League law and tradition, but Felicity absolutely did not want to confuse her daughter with that very negligible complication in the history of their relationship with Oliver, so she decided that Mia did not need to know that detail.  Felicity’s relationship with Nyssa had been rocky in the past, especially when the woman insisted on calling Oliver her “husband” even when they were already together just to tease her painfully.  Yet, after what Nyssa had tried to do to help Roy and Thea in a desperate time of trouble, and because of her willingness to keep Mia a secret from everyone else and to equip their daughter with the necessary skills to protect herself from danger, Felicity’s friendship with Nyssa had grown.  Nyssa had been welcomed into Felicity and Mia’s very small family, among the handful that knew of the little girl’s existence.

For the last eight years, Nyssa had come to live with them for a week at a time, usually every two months, but always longer during summertime.  Felicity had asked her to teach Mia how to develop the kind of physical fitness needed to be able to learn how to fight like her father.  Nyssa had Mia learn gymnastics and stunts to develop her agility, flexibility, and muscular strength.  Together they would run for miles to and from the town proper and also on rugged terrain in the woods.  Gradually, Mia’s training progressed to learning the proper fighting stance and then to both defensive and offensive positions and attacks.  Nyssa had made sure that the girl mastered self-defense skills and hand-to-hand combat first before they moved on to using weapons.  Of course, Mia was no match against the veteran assassin, but Nyssa had always taught the girl how to take a fall with pride and how to take blows without really hurting herself.  And oh, Mia had had her fair share of being knocked down countless times through the years.

On one particular day when Mia was twelve, training with her Aunt Nyssa had been very discouraging.  Mia had difficulty focusing and had ended up on the ground a number of times.  The girl was nursing a sprained ankle, a splinter in her toe, and a bruise on her cheek.  Nyssa offered, not just an ice pack for her ache, but more so, a warm, friendly conversation.  She told Mia about how her own father had trained her growing up, how hard her father made her work, how many times she had fallen and been injured, and how she had set her mind and heart to be the best warrior she can be in the tradition of her people.  She had spared her teenage apprentice of the gory details of how she had succeeded in her goal, but Mia had gotten the gist of the motivational pep talk, and a small, shy smile had begun to blossom on her freckled face.

Nyssa then invited Mia into her room to show her something that she and Felicity had been meaning to show her when the time was right.  She pulled out a large, rectangular, wooden crate from under her bed and opened it, revealing a sleek, black compound bow that was red at both ends, and several matching arrows attached to its side instead of stored in a separate quiver. 

Mia’s eyed widened and her mouth gaped open in awe as she took in a deep breath through her mouth.  “Is that… Is that for me?” the girl asked, her hands itching to take the weapon out of the crate.

“Someday, when you are ready, it will be yours,” Nyssa replied somberly in her signature accent.

“It looks a bit different from what my dad used to carry,” Mia remarked, carefully observing the weapon that lay on top of several sacks in the crate.  “With this one, I won’t need a quiver strapped to my back.  That is so… cool.”

Nyssa’s lips turned up for a smile.  It was so refreshing to train a young protégé like Mia, innocent and untainted by the evils of this world.  Mia was the first person she had to train that wasn’t supposed to be a mercenary or a cold-blooded murderer.

“You’ve been working very hard, Mia,” Nyssa complimented her.  “And if you keep at it with a single-minded purpose, you will soon be able to fight just as skillfully as your father.  I’m sure he would have been proud.”

There was a moment of silence that passed between them, and then Mia looked up at her mentor.  “Tell me more about my father.”

Nyssa’s brows crinkled together in a frown.  She wondered what else she could tell the girl about Oliver Queen that Felicity Smoak hadn’t already shared with her own daughter.  She honestly did not know what to say.

“Please, Aunt Nyssa,” Mia implored, this time with more warmth and less of the formality towards a mentor.  “Tell me what my daddy was like.”

Nyssa placed an arm around Mia’s shoulder and led her to the bed.  She motioned for them to sit down. 

Looking at the Green Arrow’s daughter with sincere eyes, she told Mia, “Oliver Queen was… an extraordinary man.  When I first met him, I considered him an enemy, a threat.  I thought that he was going to come between me and a person I loved very deeply.  When my beloved was killed, I blamed him for getting in the way of my vengeance against the murderer.  I could not understand why he would protect the life of a guilty, wretched human being, especially since I knew that he had had it in him to eliminate wicked people who refused to change their ways.  Later on, however, I realized that he had resolved to find another way to get justice, one that did not involve killing out of revenge.  I still did not understand it or accept it, seeing it as a sign of weakness.  But eventually, I came to see it as his strength.  That resolve not to take a life unless it was absolutely necessary to save another’s had become his pathway towards the light, towards becoming a better man, an inspiration to many, including your mother.  The truth is, your father became an inspiration even to me.  As I look back, I believe it was his example that moved me to disband a secret organization of assassins that I used to lead and find better ways to make a difference in this broken world.”

Mia sighed.  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you speak that much at one time, Aunt Nyssa,” she teased, grateful that her mentor had agreed to open up about her father. 

That was the first time that Nyssa had broken out into a chuckle in front of her.  “You might be right about that,” she responded with a smile.  “I hope my answer to your question did not disappoint.” 

“No, it didn’t.  Actually, some of the things you said are like what my mom tells me about my dad.  She says that my dad was a vigilante and a hero.  She tells me stories of the team of vigilantes that he used to lead before I was born.  Did you know them?”

“Oh yes, I did.  They were a brave group of vigilantes who wanted to save Star City.  I had the privilege of fighting alongside them a few times.  You should be proud of them, and of your father who inspired them to fight, of the blood of heroism that runs through your veins.”

“I’m not a hero,” was Mia’s curt and sharp response.  “I’m hiding out here, in the middle of nowhere, with my mom who constantly nags me about being around strangers and being extra careful of threats.  I haven’t been anywhere else except this miserable town with a zero crime rate.  How can I be a hero if I’m always afraid of dangers that might not even exist?”

“Mia, your mother knows exactly what she is talking about.  Being the child of the Green Arrow is a serious matter.  There are people who do not honor your father’s legacy, people who want to undo the good he has done and thwart it.  You have to be ready to defend yourself when the time comes.  I trust Felicity, which is why I have agreed to prepare you for when that time comes.  I truly hope it never does, for your sake and hers,” Nyssa explained.

“Do you think I’ll ever be as good a fighter as my dad?” Mia asked once again.

“That is entirely up to you.”

Mia looked away from her aunt and fixed her gaze on the crate where the black bow and arrows were kept.  She stared at it with such intensity that made her mentor think of how to end their conversation on a positive note.

“Mia,” Nyssa said, “your father was an honorable man.  He understood the cost of saving people’s lives and protecting the people he loved, and he was willing to make the necessary sacrifices in order to do just that.  Your mother understands that, too.”  Nyssa took Mia’s hand in hers and added, “You are young, and I know that you are still trying to discover who you really are.  I do hope that you find yourself and your life’s purpose in all this.  But whatever you do, never forget who your father was, and what he did so that you could live your life as you were destined to.”

Mia simply looked down at their joined hands.  She was yet unsure of what she believed.  She wanted to take all of it in and believe, especially because everything her aunt had just told her was consistent with what her mother has ever told her through the years.  Nevertheless, her world was too small for her liking, and she was convinced that she needed to see the bigger picture before she truly bought into these heroic tales of crime-fighting vigilantes that were supposed to be her legacy.  So, she settled for the most polite response.

“Thanks, Aunt Nyssa,” she said. 

Nyssa smiled, stood up, and tugged at Mia to do so as well.  They heard Felicity calling them to dinner.  “Coming, Mom,” Mia yelled.  They left the bedroom and joined Felicity in the kitchen.

Tomorrow they would again start training at dawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your thoughts?  
> The next chapter will focus on Mia's relationship with William.


	3. William

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one takes place in my head, between 7x15 and 7x16, because I want more off-screen bonding time between William and Mia. Although I was glad that the Arrow writers did not let the angst between Felicity and Mia drag on and resolved their issue by the end of 7x16, I feel like Mia needed time and a lot of realizations based on facts before she could be able to get over her deep-seated resentment against her parents' choice to become heroes that put the safety and well-being of others before their own family's. I wanted this conversation between the siblings to help with that.

Mia’s gaze shifted from her half-brother’s frowning face to the micro cassette tape that he was staring at, like it meant the whole world to them.  She was thinking it, but she would never admit it to him or to anyone.  She really wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear her mother’s voice again.  She missed Felicity, but she also hated her mom for more than one reason.

She did admire her mother even more for her brilliance after she and William found the obsolete tech inside the Rubik’s cube.  _A cube in a cube in a cube._  Felicity had drilled this stuff into her brain until she had memorized the trick and could do it with her eyes closed.  Apparently, she wasn’t the only one that her mother had forced the seemingly random trick upon; it was good to know that her half-brother had learned it, too.  It was pure genius that Felicity intentionally used the very same mind game that only the two of them knew about, in order to keep whatever it was that needed to stay hidden, hidden.  To the untrained eye, the Rubik’s cube that William found in the dilapidated Smoak Technologies office in Star City was merely a toy.  Now, however, they understood that whatever Felicity had recorded on that micro cassette tape was so confidential and sensitive that she would entrust the information only to her two children.  Moreover, Felicity had also chosen to save the message using technology that was hack-proof, which was another evidence of her mother’s intelligence.  Nevertheless, what meant more to Mia after she and William had come back from outsmarting Felix and retrieving the mini cassette player that her brother had already paid for was this: her mom knew that the only way they could finally listen to the message on the tape was for them to work together – William’s brains, which he takes after his step-mom, and her brawn, which she takes after their father.  The mission demanded nothing less.

“Are you just going to stare at it all night?” Mia asked William.

“No.”

“Then what are you waiting for?  Just play it,” she ordered her older brother.  Patience was definitely not one of her virtues.

“I don’t know.  What are _you_ waiting for?”

“Fine.”  She picked up the little cassette tape and tried to stick it into the player.  But she couldn’t figure out how to work the thing because she’d never had to use such an outdated piece of tech before.

“Maybe I should do it,” William interrupted her, standing up and coming to stand beside her.

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” she protested, excusing how she was fumbling with the archaic device.

“Just give it to me,” William said, taking the uncooperative item from his half-sister’s hands.

It was a good thing that he had seen an answering machine from his grandparents’ house all those years ago.  He easily slid the tape into the casing and closed it shut.  Thinking about what his step-mom wanted them to hear wasn’t as easy though.  He hasn’t heard Felicity’s voice in twenty years, and he wasn’t sure that he was ready for it.  Mixed emotions were swirling in his chest, so he hadn’t noticed that he had shared his musings out loud for Mia to hear.

“Look,” she told him, “whatever she says on there, it’s clear she wanted us both to hear it… together.”  She was too engrossed at the thought of hearing a message from her mother to notice the budding feelings of affection that were beginning to grow in her heart for her long-lost sibling, prompting her to reach out and wrap her hand around her brother’s wrist.  She had first learned of his existence when she discovered her mother’s secret lair in the safe house in the woods.  The picture of him with her mother had told her that he was someone her mother held dear just like her dad, and she had immediately surmised that the boy in the life-size picture had to be family.  

Mia sighed and said, “Let’s just get this over with.”  She pressed the play button and waited.

“William and Mia…”  Felicity saying their names together in one sentence was strange yet profoundly endearing.  This reality of having a sibling was starting to grow on her, and it gave her a warm, light-hearted feeling – something that she thought she’d never feel again since she left home and forged her own path in this crazy, dying city.  But she pushed the feeling away, thinking it was a sign of weakness that she could not afford to show.

They listened intently to their mother’s message.  They knew it was really Felicity talking because the rambling was so her.  Yet, three things caught their undivided attention.  First was her apology.  Felicity hadn’t asked for their forgiveness, but she had apologized mostly for keeping each other’s existence from them, for keeping the two of them apart all these years.  Second was her justification for that action – which was to protect them - and her confession that the decision to do so had been made by both their parents on the basis of love.  Of course, the third detail of importance was the coordinates that Felicity was entrusting to them to pass on to the team of vigilantes that used to be Team Arrow.  Mia welcomed this, because it made her refocus her mind on a mission instead of on her painful childhood and complicated family history.  As for Felicity’s clear-cut directive that they get out of Star City and not come looking for her, she was glad that she and William were in agreement about ignoring it altogether.  Mia felt all the more drawn to her brother this way; it seemed he, too, had a rebellious streak, and she felt less alone in this life than she had in the past couple of years.

After she showed him where she believed the coordinates Felicity gave led to, they went back to her dirty, cluttered, abandoned little room in the second floor office of Max Fuller’s former club, which she had made her home for the past months.  She had always known that her mother knew exactly where she was, especially after she had run away from home the second time.  She knew there was no place on earth she could hide in where her mother could not and would not find her.  But she appreciated that Felicity had left her alone as she wished, and only contacted her through secure means only for reasons that were of utmost importance.

In her dimly lit room, Mia and William made the most of an old, uncomfortable couch and the floor in order to retire for the night.  They needed to rest.  Tomorrow’s mission demanded that both their mind and body were in tiptop shape.  Neither of them could sleep, however, and somehow they both could sense it.

Without moving from his position, William spoke without even opening his eyes.  “You really did remind me of our dad back there at the market… when you were fuming over Felix.  I could totally picture you in dark green leather with a hood over your head and a mask on your face.  You really know how to throw a punch.  Such a badass.  Dad would be so proud.”

“You think?” Mia asked in response.  She didn’t move either.  She kept her tattooed arm across her face, covering her eyes.

“Yeah,” William replied.  “I used to wonder if he was ever proud of me.  I couldn’t kick ass like you do now.  Still can’t.  It didn’t help that I chose to live with my grandparents instead of sticking it out with him and Felicity.  I’ve lived most of the past twenty years vacillating between regretting the choice I made and resenting them for never coming for me or that I never heard from them again.”

Mia huffed and remarked, “Good to know that I wasn’t the only Queen spawn with a messed up childhood.”

There was silence between them for a minute, and then Mia spoke again.  “What was he like?  Our dad?”  This time, she sat up and faced William, who turned to his side to face his sister.  “I mean, you’ve already confirmed what Mom used to say… that he was a real hero back then.  But what was he really like… as a person… as a father?”

“Oliver Queen was a gentle, caring person,” William replied with certainty.  There was also nostalgia in his voice that matched the small smile that formed on his lips, which all the more piqued Mia’s interest.  Deep down she was beginning to envy him a bit.  She never had a chance to make memories with her father.  She had been too young when Oliver disappeared from their lives.

William went on to say, “I could never really reconcile the fact that he scared the living daylights out of his enemies and the criminals he put behind bars, and the fact that he could be as gentle as he was to me and to Felicity and to the people he cared about.  When he was mayor of Star City--”

“Wait, what?” Mia interrupted her brother.  “Our dad used to be the mayor here?  Get out!”

“He was,” said William, “and if you ask me, he was doing a really good job at it.  I never really understood what drove him to confess publicly that he was the Green Arrow.  He explained to me that he was willing to go to prison to make sure that Felicity and the entire team would be free to live their lives.  The deal he made with the Feds was supposed to keep us safe from a guy named Diaz, but… that’s a long story that I’ve never enjoyed telling.  So, going back to what I was saying…”

Mia chuckled, breaking his train of thought.

“What?”

“I find it completely amusing that you are not actually biologically related to Felicity Smoak, because you babble exactly like her,” Mia told him, laughing mildly in an attempt to tease.  “Anyways, you were saying…?”

William simply shook his head and then picked up where he had left off.  “I was saying that our dad was actually a very loving and caring person.  I remember him being touchy-feely, actually.  He wasn’t like that with just me; I saw him like that with Felicity, too.  He loved to hug her.  He liked to give me a pat on the back or rest his hand on my shoulder.  Simple gestures, but they meant a lot.  He also liked to show how much he cared by doing little things for them, things that might not mean much to an average person, like… like cooking for them.  He was really fantastic in the kitchen.”

“Can’t say the same about Mom.”

“I won’t argue with you on that,” he said.  “Dad used to make those terrific snacks that Felicity and I loved, especially when we were staying up late doing homework.”

“Monte Cristos!  I loved those sandwiches.”

“Oh… So Felicity did learn how to make those eventually.”

“Guess she did.  She’s probably not as helpless in the kitchen as she used to be.  I mean, I never went hungry growing up.  I hated the fact that she lied to me about certain things, even if she only meant to protect me, but she…”  Mia paused, contemplating whether or not she should reveal her innermost feelings about her mother.  After a brief moment, she ended up saying something that was kind of cathartic, not realizing that she had said it out loud.  “She has always been a… pretty good mother.”

“I know what you mean.  Felicity had been there for me during the toughest time in my life,” William said. 

“When my real mom died on that island, I had a really rough time.  I was scared, scared of what the future had in store without her.  Suddenly I had to live with a father I barely knew.  There were so many drastic changes happening in my life.  It was a crazy time.  Dad was patient with me… even when I blamed him for many things, which I knew were beyond his control.  He gave me the time and space I needed, though, and eventually, I came around.  I even reached a point when I hated that he had to put on a mask and fight to save the city, because it took away the normalcy of my childhood.  I was barely a teenager, but I had already been kidnapped more than once.  Later on, I realized what it meant to have a hero for a father.”

William looked at Mia, who was quietly staring at some random hole on the torn-down couch.  He knew she was trying to make sense of the things he was saying, but he wasn’t sure whether or not she agreed with his sentiments.

“And what did it mean for you?” Mia asked, staring straight into his eyes.

William’s response was quick and confident.  “It meant having to share him with others who needed the kind of protection that he could help provide.  It meant believing that after every dangerous mission where he put his life on the line for others, he would come home alive.  It meant accepting that I wouldn’t have the normal life that every other kid had.  Because I wasn’t like every other kid.  Because my father wasn’t like every other dad.  My dad was a hero.”  William dropped his gaze.  With sadness in his eyes, he finished what he wanted to say.  “I’m just… sorry… that I never got a second chance to tell him how proud I was of being the Green Arrow’s son.”

Mia decided that she had heard enough for one night.  Her heart couldn’t take any more of these heart-warming tales.  She was an undefeated cage-fighting champion; she didn’t need to get these warm-fuzzy feelings to make her feel better.  She thought she was doing just fine on her own dark, lonely path.  She hadn’t intended to become vulnerable to her half-brother, but she had been, and she thought she had made a mistake.  She was fighting the urge to care about the eye-opening things that William was saying, because those same things were beginning to prove her wrong.

“We have a long day tomorrow.  We should get some sleep,” Mia told William, without acknowledging a word of what he’d just said.  She lay down on the floor and turned her back against him.

“Good night, Mia.”

“Yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter takes place after 7x16. It will focus on Mia and Connor's relationship, but it will still tackle the main question of this fic.


	4. Connor Hawke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place in 2040 after 7x16, and it focuses on Mia and Connor's relationship and the drama that ensued when Mia found out who he really was in 7x16. Mia will find out more about her father through John Diggle's POV, as told by Connor. The first part sets the stage for this through an off-screen spec back story. Hope you like it. :-)

“ _Was any of it real?”_

_“All of it.”_

She wanted to believe it, to believe him.  She had to.  Otherwise, everything that her mother and her Aunt Nyssa had taught her for years about how to read people would have all been for nothing.  And if that were the case, she would find it so hard to forgive – not Connor, but herself.

Even if Oliver’s genetics had naturally passed on to Mia, she had still grown up to be a lot like her mother.  Nature and nurture had done their job in shaping her to be the kind of person she’d become.  Like post-Diaz Felicity, trusting people was a rarity, especially since her survival depended on it.  Like post-island Oliver, she couldn’t really see people as persons; they were either threats or targets.  For as long as she could remember, there was hardly anyone she trusted or allowed into her life beyond casual acquaintance.  Even after she had left their home in the woods to live in Star City on her own, Mia still hadn’t learned to open up her heart and let anyone in.  She was closed off and very much guarded, as if her heart was a fortified city surrounded by formidable walls just like the Glades.   

Until she met Connor Hawke and gained her first and only trusted friend. Or so she thought.

* * *

It had been a couple of months after her mom had finally discovered where she had gone and found her cage-fighting in Star City, about six months after she had run away from home.  Felicity had been disguised, wearing a long, straight, black wig with purple streaks on her head, and clad in an all-black leather get-up that had concealed her identity to everyone that night, that is, everyone except Mia. 

Felicity had placed a huge bet in Blackstar’s favor, seeing that her daughter’s opponent appeared to be all muscle yet devoid of wit and heart.  And true enough, Mia had incapacitated the guy in under five minutes, having walked away with only some minor bruising and scraping on her face, a sore shoulder, and a few small cuts on her knuckles. Mia had needed money to purchase some hardware that she needed for herself and had to pay the debts she owed a couple of persons of questionable character that had gotten her out of trouble from the SCPD.  So, when Felicity had approached her privately after the fight, offering a handsome sum (which she felt she had also earned herself), Mia had decided not to dismiss her mother and abruptly disappear a second time.

After the fight, Felicity had tended to Mia’s wounds, much like she used to do for Oliver in the foundry and then in the bunker all those years ago.  She had tried to hold back the pearly tears that threatened to escape her eyes as she bandaged her daughter’s hands and treated the scrapes and bruises on her face.  It had felt so much like _déjà vous,_ only this time, the person she was tending to was their darling daughter.  Gone was the sweetness that her beautiful name had half-represented; all she could see as she treated the scrapes and bruises on Mia’s face was the unquenchable fire in her greenish blue eyes – the other half of the reason why Oliver had proposed to name their daughter after his mother Moira.

Felicity had done everything she could to ensure that Mia would be ready to defend herself from attack or assault when the time came.  Nyssa had trained Mia well to fight, with or without weapons.  Felicity, too, had done her part to equip her daughter with the necessary computer skills to help her hide her true identity, to evade threats, and to survive off the grid.  Felicity believed with all of her heart that Mia was ready and able to protect herself from danger, unlike her and William, who had been prey to Ricardo Diaz during those six months when Oliver had been locked up at Slabside. 

However, she still hadn’t been quite prepared to see Mia using her inherited abilities and learned skills in the offensive, for the purpose of eking out a living, through cage-fighting no less.  Earlier during the fight, her heart had broken each time Mia’s brawny adversary landed a punch or a heavy blow anywhere on her daughter’s very slender frame.  She had winced when the powerful kick that landed behind Mia’s knee had caused her leg to buckle, temporarily disorienting her daughter.  Felicity hadn’t felt her chest constrict and her stomach churn in unwanted tension like that for two decades.  It was extremely difficult to see the ones you loved most in this world get hurt.  It made her miss Oliver so much.

Nevertheless, watching Mia fight so much like her father had also made Felicity’s heart soar.  She could not be prouder.  Oliver’s skill and fighting style had always impressed (and attracted) her, but Oliver had been a grown man facing off with villains that had also been grown men or metahumans (or aliens, that one time).  Mia, on the other hand, was a skinny young lady who looked like she didn’t stand a chance against enemies that looked like they could snap her neck with their bare hands.  Oliver would have been proud to see their daughter fight… if only he could see Mia now.

Felicity had stayed with Mia for a couple of days.  She had wanted to catch up with her daughter, but during their time apart, Mia had become an impenetrable wall, speaking only when she asked, and often pretending like her mother wasn’t there.  It was painful to have lost her daughter’s trust, and it had been clear that Mia still resented her mom for keeping her in the dark about the vigilante hacking that she had been doing for years.  Worse, Mia seemed to have bought into the city’s anti-vigilante propaganda.  Once, the subject of vigilantism had come up in their predominantly one-way conversation.  Mia had been very vocal about her disapproval of the “alleged” heroic activities of vigilantes, including the Green Arrow’s team.  It hurt Felicity that Star City seemed to have succeeded in casting doubt on her credibility as Mia’s mother just because she was a vigilante, as well as on her father’s legacy as a hero.

When Felicity had invited Mia to come and live with her in the city in a secret shelter owned by Smoak Technologies, Mia had declined instantly, without even giving it much thought.  She had felt like she had utterly disappointed her daughter just because of that one secret that she had kept from her for her own good.  Mia had insisted that she live her own life, and so Felicity backed off, promising that she would leave Mia alone on the condition that they stay in touch.  Mia had agreed.  A week later, Felicity had already set up a secure channel between them that was to be used sparingly, only if either one of them was in serious trouble and needed help.  Felicity had assumed her father’s codename, The Calculator; Mia preferred the moniker Blackstar as hers.

About a month later, Mia had met Connor Hawke.

They had met in a run-down community center.  They both had volunteered to help orphaned street kids in Star City learn basic self-defense.  Their casual acquaintance had developed into a friendship.  Although Connor was about five years older than Mia, they both had a lot of things in common, especially when it came to being estranged from their parents because they both deemed parents as having misplaced priorities, always keeping secrets, and undeserving of their children’s full trust.  Mia had noticed their instant connection while Connor had done his part in showing her through verbal and nonverbal cues that he did care about her.

Mia had never had a relationship with a guy before, and she had judged Connor to be a decent one that deserved to earn some of her trust.  Eventually, she had begun to consider the possibility that she might already be falling for Connor.  Underneath her strong, stoic façade, and despite her best efforts to deny her capacity to have affections of any kind, she had actually allowed herself to feel.

But she should have known better. 

She should not have trusted him and made herself vulnerable to deception.  She should not have allowed herself to care.  Connor had been just as pretentious as her mother.  He was an agent of Nightwatch, an organization that went after people like her who walked the thin line between what was lawful and what was not.  He was the adopted son of John Diggle, a known vigilante that used to work with her parents.  He had been sent to protect her, obviously at her mother’s request from a long-time, loyal friend.  How then could any of the meaningful things that they had shared be real?

* * *

“Give him a chance, Mia,” her mother had encouraged her.  

They had finally had their heart-to-heart mother-daughter reconciliatory talk after more than two years of living apart.  Felicity had noticed that Mia had been giving Connor the cold shoulder.  It had been almost a week after their mission in the Glades where they rescued Felicity and foiled Kevin Dale’s plans of blowing up Star City.  Mia and Connor had both helped out the team of vigilantes, but they still weren’t on speaking terms.

Mia had remained silent.  Although she had refused to acknowledge her mother, Felicity had added, “Connor did what he had to do to protect you.  I’m sure he hadn’t planned on admiring how beautiful, brave, and strong you are inside and out, but he did anyway.  Whether or not Connor is your type, I can see that he truly cares about you.”

Mia had finally turned her head to see Felicity smiling as she walked away, leaving her alone in the dimly lit room of hers.  It wasn’t a comfortable position, doing upside-down push-ups, but it had always worked to distract her from unwanted thoughts and unpleasant feelings.  She would never admit it to her mother, but she was sort of denying the fact that she somehow missed Connor.  She’d been glad that her mother had not pressed her about it and had backed off.

* * *

A few minutes later, Mia was done with her workout.  It had helped clear her head.  As she stood on her feet, she noticed a familiar figure standing at the doorway.  It was Connor, and he had a bottle of scotch and two glasses in his hands.

Mia huffed out a deep breath and crossed her arms in front of her chest.  “Did my mom send you with that peace offering?” she asked, the tone of her voice laced with irritation and suspicion.

Seeing that she hadn’t thrown anything at him yet to send him away, Connor took a tentative step into the room.  “No,” he replied, “but I did run into her downstairs and we talked for a while.  She wanted to know how my parents are.”

Connor could scarcely hold Mia’s steely gaze, but he pushed on.  It wasn’t easy to make amends with one’s girl when you were no longer sure whether or not she was still your girl. 

“I asked if she’d seen you anywhere.  She told me I could find you up here,” he said, gripping the bottle of scotch a bit more tightly.

“So she did send you,” said Mia with a tinge of sarcasm.  She raised her brow at him, but the corner of her lips did turn up for a small smile that she tried to hide.

“If you say so,” Connor conceded.  He knew better than to cross her one more time.  His adoptive father had told him before sending him to Star City that Smoak women were headstrong and quite stubborn for their own good.

“Look, Mia, I know you’re still upset that I kept the truth from you about who I am and why I came here,” he began to explain, “and I’m really sorry that I had to.  I’m so, so sorry that I hurt you this way.” 

Connor knew Mia well enough to surmise that she would have told him to shut up and leave if she had no intentions of hearing him out.  So, taking advantage of this window she was giving him, he took a few more steps to close the distance between them.  “I just… I need you to know that… all this time I’ve had to lie to you?  It hurt me, too.  Because whether or not you believe me, I really do care about you, Mia.  As far as I’m concerned, the way I feel about you is as real as you and me standing here right now.”

Mia blinked and dropped her gaze, but she did not say a word.  Connor wasn’t sure what to make of her silence though.

He cleared his throat and said, “Well, I should go.  You know where to find me.”  He turned to leave, but Mia’s voice made him look back. 

“Wait,” she said.

“Was there something else?” he asked.  He wanted there to be something else. 

The frown on his face dissipated when he saw that the lines between her brows had already disappeared.  He tried to lighten the mood this time.  “Your mom did say that it’s best to give you the space you need when you’re angry or broody.  She said that it’s another one of your traits that make you so much like you dad.”

“Oh, did she?”  There was a tad bit of humor in her voice as well.  “What else has she told you about my dad, other than he’s the legendary Green Arrow who tried so hard to save this miserable, ungrateful city?”

“Not much else,” Connor answered, taking the bottle of scotch and pouring her a drink, “just that she sees so much of him in you – in the expressions on your face, in how well you fight, in the strength of your heart and the stubbornness of your will.”

“Yeah, she says the same thing to me,” Mia responded.  Her voice was already calm, and she had uncrossed her arms, reaching forward to take the glass of scotch from his outstretched hand.

“I’m sorry you never got the chance to know him – your dad,” he said to her with affection in his eyes.  “I barely remember my own biological father.  Like I said, I was really young when he died.  I know how tough it is growing up without a father.”

“What do you remember about him?” Mia asked before taking a swig of her scotch.

“Hardly anything, actually.  He’d always been away when I was little.  It was only when I was older that John Diggle told me the story of who my father was.  It was disappointing to know that my father had been a criminal, a murderer at that.  But John told me that he later on got a shot at redemption and he had taken it.  He helped the Green Arrow and his team.  It was comforting to know that in the end, he had chosen to do right and had died a hero, sacrificing his life to protect John’s family.  I can recall visiting him in prison once, but all I can remember was how happy we both were that day.  Never saw him again after that.”

Mia was quiet again for a minute.  She poured herself another round of scotch, and this time, she offered him a glass.  After a couple of sips, she asked him, “Did… did John Diggle ever talk about my dad, or what he was like?”

“A few times, yes,” he replied.  “John said the less I know about the Green Arrow and their team of vigilantes, the better it is for me and for you.”

“That’s not fair, though, is it?  I deserve to know about my father, right?”

Connor nodded.  He knew better this time.  She was clearly averse to lies and secrets.

“John once told me that Oliver Queen was more than just a leader and a friend to him.  He said they were brothers.  Through the years that they’d known each other, Oliver had become closer and loyal to him than his own brother ever was.  They’d had a few rough patches in the past, but he was certain that they’d both give their lives for the other if it ever came to that.  It’s why he told me to find you and keep you safe.”

“When I made the choice to follow in his footsteps, John had told me, ‘You can stare down death with something to live for, or not.  Something to live for is better.’  He said that he told Oliver Queen the very same thing when he was just starting out on his mission.  I guess the Green Arrow took his advice seriously.  John said that your father knew that saving people and changing a city for the better would be costly, especially when _you_ came along.  But when the time came, he still made the ultimate sacrifice so that you and your mom would survive, so that this city could still have a fighting chance no matter how slim.  I never got the chance to meet him, Mia, but I think that your dad was a real hero.”

Mia simply nodded.  She wished she could say something, something more.  But aside from her mom and William, Connor was the only other person that she could really trust at this point, and if he said that her father was a hero just like her own family had told her, then Oliver Queen must have really been one.  For the first time in a long time, Mia Smoak Queen managed a smile.

Mia then finished what was left of her drink.  When she put her glass down on the table and looked up at Connor, he asked, “So, where does this leave _us_?”

“You’re a sneaky little hawk, arent’ you?” she quipped.  “Now I’m sure that my mother did put you up to this.”

“Can’t blame a man for trying,” he said, giving her a wink.

“ _Us_ is a discussion for another time, Agent Hawke,” she replied, “ _if_ you’re willing to step into the cage with me.”  She winked back at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what did you think of this? Between the two of them, I think Connor would still be the one to initiate clearing the air. I liked the idea of the Arrow writers - giving Overwatch's daughter and Spartan's adopted son a romantic relationship in the future. I also liked to think that Felicity had something to do with Diggle asking Connor to watch over Mia, and that when Felicity intuitively figures out that there was something going on between them, she approves of the match and encourages them to sort through their issues. So, I went with it.
> 
> In the next chapter, Mia learns more about her dad, and more about what happened 20 years ago from two people whom Oliver had inspired and mentored - Roy and Dinah.


	5. Roy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was supposed to be just about Mia learning about Oliver from Roy Harper, but I wrote about so much more. It's my idea of how things will go down towards the end of Season 7 - actually, how I want things to go down after 7x16 - which means, from here on, the fic will be canon divergent. I just won't accept any other ending to our favorite show other than that Olicity and their family eventually get their happy ending where none of them dies. So yes, this fic is about me pouring out my heart over my most favorite show coming to an end (without its leading lady in the final season). Whaaahh!!! 
> 
> This is the longest chapter in this fic so far. Once I started writing it, I couldn't stop. I blame it on the heartbreak that was EBR's announcement. I'm still in the process of grieving the impending loss, but I'm still happy about how this one turned out. I hope you will be too.

“What was that all about back there?!!” Mia screamed, directing her fierce and pointed gaze at an out-of-breath Roy Harper, as the team arrives in their secret lair after an unsuccessful mission.

Roy didn’t even turn to look at the younger version of the Felicity he’d known for years, spanning almost three decades – the “blondie” who had become his friend and teammate back in the days when he’d gone out on evening patrols and save-the-city missions with the Arrow, and the one whose loud voice used to echo throughout the foundry when one or all of them had messed up in the field resulting in at least one of them getting injured unnecessarily.  Roy didn’t dare look Mia in the eye and see this version of Oliver’s deathly stare.  And it wasn’t because he was afraid of it.  No.  It was because he was ashamed that Mia had seen him lose control for the first time, just like he had felt absolute guilt and shame the first time her parents – his friends and mentors – had seen him kill a man with his bare hands.  He’d never been the same since the Pit.  Unlike with the Mirakuru, this time there had been no more cure; Nyssa could not find another Lotus.

It wasn’t the first time Roy had gone out of control since his return to Star City.  Dinah and Zoe had witnessed him lose it when they confronted that uncooperative, dirty cop to get intel about Felicity’s supposed murder.  However, it had happened again during their mission barely an hour ago, and this time, the entire team witnessed it.  He’d seen how brokenhearted Felicity had been, seeing him taken over by the bloodlust after all these years.  She must think that the years of solitude that he’d spent on Lian Yu had done nothing to ease the burden of his soul.  She must consider him an utter disappointment, a failure, an embarrassment to Oliver’s legacy.  With Mia, it was different.  The young Smoak-Queen was not broken-hearted; she was infuriated.  She must doubt how he could have ever been the Green Arrow’s protégé.  He definitely was no hero.

The team had been on a covert mission with Agent Hawke in the lead.  Connor had secretly obtained information from Nightwatch about where the rumored back-up bombs were being kept by Kevin Dale’s evil organization.  They were supposed to infiltrate the Eden Corp. warehouse without any casualties on either side.  A guard had caught Felicity hacking security and had manhandled her, and as soon as Roy had gotten to her rescue, he had seen red.  Connor had gotten hurt trying to stop Roy from killing the guard with his fists. Because Roy had unnecessarily entangled himself in the bloody altercation, the team had narrowly escaped capture by the Glades PD.  Mia might never forgive him for all the trouble he’d caused.  That much, he could surmise, if the indignant look on her face was any indication. 

If he could only take it all back, he would.  Just like that time when he had lost Thea because of it.

“You cost us this mission!  Don’t you have anything to say?” Mia asked angrily as she banged her bow against the rusty, metal table in the team’s temporary secret lair.

“Mia…” Felicity cautioned her, placing her hand on her daughter’s forearm.

But Mia would not have it.  She was furious.  She shook off her mom’s hand.  “He was beating that guard to death!  I thought you vigilantes didn’t kill.” 

She turned to Felicity and said, “Arsenal flung Agent Hawke against a concrete wall!  If it weren’t for William erasing footage from the surveillance camera, Connor wouldn’t just be suffering now from a serious concussion; his identity would have also been compromised!” 

Turning to Roy once again, she added, “And now _your_ DNA is all over that guard’s bloody, messed-up face!  It’s only a matter of time before Archer finds you.  Finds all of us!”

No one spoke.  The Canaries were silent, William was silent, and so was Overwatch.

Taking a deep breath, Roy spoke in a self-deprecating tone.  “She’s right.  I shouldn’t be on this team.  I shouldn’t have come back.  I’m a loose cannon.  And a liability.  I belong to that island,” he said, still not meeting anyone’s gaze.  He just stood there, gripping the cold, metal bars of the stairwell as if his life depended on it.  He was truly sorry for hurting Connor Hawke, the adopted son of yet another of his closest friends.  It only added to a long list of things he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself for.

“Uncle Roy…”  William was the one who responded, calling him by his name instead of his codename.  “You are a part of this team.  We can help you, whatever it is you’re going through.”  He was being kind and sympathetic, and Mia decided that this was not one of her favorite of her brother’s traits in the few weeks that she’d gotten to know him.  No one in this troubled city was that nice.

Felicity approached Roy cautiously as she observed his breathing normalizing.  “Hey, I know life’s been tough without Thea.  I know it’s been lonely living it, blaming yourself everyday for what happened.  But even though you swore some years ago never to come back so that you could protect your family from… from the effects that the Pit had on you, I had to bring you back here for a reason.  You’re not the only one seeking redemption, Roy.  All of us… we _all_ need it.”

“I know, _I_ do,” said Dinah, stepping forward and approaching her two friends.  “We’ve all made mistakes that we regret to this day.  But the only way we can win this fight, the only way we can find ourselves again and find peace after all of this is over, is if we stick together.  Like the team that we used to be.  Before all hell broke loose in Star City.”  She spoke not just to Roy but to everyone.

Mia pursed her lips and sighed.  She looked down at her bow.  At the mention of her father’s name, she had calmed down somewhat.  “I’ve really been trying to wrap my mind around this whole Team Arrow and superheroes thing for weeks now, but I… ugh… I still can’t… I don’t understand… How did a team of supposedly heroic vigilantes become a motley crew of pathetic losers, each with a sad, dark back story to hide?”

“Watch your language, Mia,” Felicity warned her sternly.  No one in this team is perfect, but I am willing to give my life for any of them if need be, and they sure as hell would give their lives to save me… or you.”  There was a grain of truth to her daughter’s slightly disrespectful commentary, but Felicity wouldn’t have Mia insulting her friends, the same ones who continue to make sacrifices for her family and for their city. 

“Could you give us the room, please?” Felicity said to the team, her blue eyes never leaving her daughter’s blue-green ones.  She adored her daughter’s eyes.  While Mia was growing up, those eyes – not the color, per se, but the expression in them – reminded her everyday of Oliver.  They still do, and for a second that felt longer than the past twenty years, she missed him again.

Dinah nodded and began to walk away, gesturing to the others to follow her out of the basement that was the team’s temporary base of operations.  Zoe was right behind her.

“I’ll check on Agent Hawke upstairs,” said William, “see if he needs anything for the pain.”

“No, you stay,” Felicity told her grown son.  She turned to Roy and said, “That goes for you, too.”

* * *

As soon as the others left, Felicity gathered her children around the metal table near the huge computer screen. 

Her children. 

It was strange and almost amusing how the three persons, whom she considered her children, differed so much in background, personality type, and age.  Felicity was not that much older compared to Roy, and yet she considered herself partly responsible for how the gray-haired and wrinkle-faced man before her now had turned out to be.  The original Team Arrow had been his only family.  They had taken him under their wing.  No one could tell her that Roy didn’t have the right to consider her his “mother” in a special sense of the word.

William was not her son by blood.  He had been Oliver’s secret, partly the reason why she had broken off their engagement the first time.  Yet eventually, because he was Oliver’s, and because he was an undeniable part of his life, Felicity had learned to accept and love him as her own son.  His well-being had become her priority, especially during the longest six months of her life when Oliver had been in prison.  That was when she discovered that she was willing to do anything to protect him even at the cost of her own life.  Taking care of William on her own had made her stronger and braver than she had ever been at that time.  So, he was her son.  Period.

Mia was… Mia.  Her very own flesh and blood.  Mia was tangible, living proof of the love that she and Oliver shared.  Once shared.  Genetically speaking, Mia was one-half her and one-half Oliver, but really, she was so much more like her dad in so many ways.  Still, Mia was _her_ daughter through and through, and Felicity was mighty proud of what she had become, hopeful of what she still could be.  She only wished Oliver could see even a glimpse of their daughter’s future with her… if only he’d lived long enough.

Felicity’s gaze shifted between Mia and William.  When her eyes finally locked on to Mia’s, she said to her, “What Arsenal did back there wasn’t right.  He did use excessive force.  But you need to cut him some slack, Mia.  In order to do that, you have to understand what your Uncle Roy has been through, what the rest of us have been through, because it’s the only way you’re ever going to appreciate to any degree what being a hero is all about.” 

Felicity took a deep breath.  Looking at William this time, she added, “I think it’s time you two understand what happened in the past.”

She looked down and closed her eyes, willing herself to find courage to speak of things she’d rather not tell, things she had been keeping from the siblings for years, stories she’d much rather keep buried in the past.  When she looked up again, she began to explain.

“About twenty years ago, sometime after you, William, went to live with your grandparents in Central City, we discovered that the masked vigilante running around Star City dressed like the Green Arrow was actually Oliver’s… your dad’s half-sister.  Apparently, your grandfather Robert Queen had had an affair with a Japanese woman, and Emiko Queen was the result.  Your grandfather had abandoned them when your grandmother Moira had found out and threatened to take their children and the company away from him.  Emiko and her mother had had a really tough time surviving on their own.  Believe it or not, living in the Glades back then was a lot like survival of the fittest in an African jungle, a lot like living in Star City right now.  Emiko got mixed up with the wrong crowd.  She met a terrorist named Dante, who taught her how to fight and turned her into a weapon of destruction.  You see, Dante worked for a secret organization called the Ninth Circle, which dated back for centuries.  The Ninth Circle believed that it was their mission to purge the world of the diseases that plagued societies, and they did this by playing god, wreaking havoc and mass destruction in order to give humanity a restart, so to speak.”

Felicity paused for a breath.  She used to be able to ramble on forever.  Some things had indeed changed through the years.

“Oliver thought… we all thought that Emiko was an ally, that she could still be turned.  But, it turned out that she had been a high-ranking leader in the Ninth Circle all along.  Your father was devastated, both by her betrayal and by the fact that she couldn’t be redeemed… didn’t want to be redeemed.  Emiko already knew where the team’s bunker was, so we had to upgrade security and we each had to watch our backs night and day.  But that was not the worst part.  Emiko had seen what Archer could do, and she had set her eyes on using it for herself and her clandestine organization.”

“The Archer program?  Archer was already operational before I was born?” Mia asked.

“It was on its trial phase, yes.  It really took off in less than a year’s time, but the prototype was already being used by the team in the bunker, and remotely in our home and in Smoke Tech’s… office,” Felicity replied, her voice fading out with a wobble in the last few words.  It was obvious that the memory was painful for her to recall.

“So, Emiko stole Archer and used it for Ninth Circle’s operations?” William asked this time.

Felicity was quick to answer, “Yes and no.  She did eventually use it for her purposes and for Ninth Circle’s.  But no, she did not steal it from Smoak Tech.  It was handed to her on a silver platter.”

Mia and William frowned, asking almost simultaneously, “How?”

“I used to work with a partner,” Felicity began to explain.  Her voice and the expression on her face bore evidence of the sadness and bitterness she still felt.  “Alena Whitlock.  She was CTO of Smoak Technologies.  Together, the company was a success.  I trusted her, but she betrayed me and the team.  Alena had bought into the Ninth Circle’s agenda that Emiko had tried to sell her… right under my nose.  I guess I should have known better, since she had previously been a member of a disbanded group of hacktivists-turned-cyber-terrorists called Helix.” 

Felicity shuddered at the bitter memory of Alena’s betrayal, as well as of her personal regret of having helped Helix and Cayden James before.  She still blamed herself and couldn’t forgive herself for those.

“I never found out that Alena had been helping Emiko for months,” Felicity added, shaking her head.  Looking straight ahead at nothing in particular, she half-whispered, “I never thought she would turn, just like that.”  The pain of the betrayal stung once more.  After all these years, it still stung, right at her heart where it hurt the most.  If she hadn’t built Archer, if she hadn’t trusted Alena blindly, Oliver might still be with them.

“Sounds like someone else I know,” Roy remarked, clearly disgusted at the thought.  His words brought Felicity back from her bitter musing.

“Rene?” William guessed, and Felicity and Roy nodded.

“With Rene, it was a bit different, though,” Felicity explained.  “Emiko had convinced him that she and her organization only had the best interests of the Glades in mind.  They had both grown up in that crime-infested and poverty-stricken part of the city.  Rene could identify with her, and he had a long history of resentment against Star City for neglecting the Glades.  I don’t know how Emiko did it, but she had Rene believe that the fall of Star City was the only way that the Glades could rise.  Rene broke with the team and allied himself with Emiko and her organization based on the promise of prosperity for the Glades that he loved so much.  Zoe was heartbroken and disillusioned.  Her relationship with her dad was never the same after that.”

“And Dad was okay with Rene leaving the team just like that?” William asked.

“Of course not,” Felicity answered sharply.  Then with a calmer voice she continued, “Oliver tried to win him back.  Dinah did, too.  But it was too late.  By that time, Alena had already given Emiko control of the Archer program.  I tried to shut it down from my end, but Alena… she had upped her game.”  Felicity paused for a while, struggling with the disappointment that she still felt whenever she was reminded of the battle that she’d lost that one time.  The one time that it mattered most.

Roy sensed her difficulty and decided to pitch in.  “Emiko began using Archer to eliminate vigilantes one by one, starting with Team Arrow.  Black Siren, who was pretending to be District Attorney Laurel Lance, was targeted first even though she was never really part of the team.  Emiko exposed her secret to the public and she was framed for a murder.  Dinah had no choice but to arrest her and commit her to ARGUS.  No one really knows what happened to her after that.  Emiko targeted Dinah next, framing her for the murder of then-mayor Pollard, which Ninth Circle actually masterminded to take control of Star City.  With Dinah out of the way, the partnership of the SCPD with Team Arrow as a legally sanctioned and deputized special unit was dissolved.  Her trial was a joke, and without fake Laurel on the team’s side, there was no way out of an unjust conviction.  Your Aunt Dinah went to prison.  She never found out you existed, Mia.”  Roy shifted and glanced at Felicity briefly before saying, “Neither did I… or Thea.”

“Sorry about that, by the way,” Felicity apologized to Roy.  “Like I said, Oliver and I decided that the less people who knew about our child, the better our chances were of keeping her safe.”    

She cleared her throat and picked up from where Roy left off. “The team got splintered.  Oliver, John, and I tried to do what we could to fight back, but we had targets on our backs.  Emiko was after us.  The SCPD was after us.  Ugh, even ARGUS came after us.  Lyla later found out that her own organization had been infiltrated by the Ninth Circle for decades; trumped up administrative charges were filed against her and she was fired.  Needless to say, we were fighting a losing battle on various fronts.”  Tears began to pool in her eyes, but she was able to hold them back.  “Then there was another poison gas threat, which we thought we were able to stop when the team was still a team.  Armed with Archer, Emiko was determined to realize her dreams for the Glades, even if it meant that the rest of Star City had to be collateral damage.”

“That was when Thea and I came back to help,” Roy interjected.  “We learned that the team was down to three and that the threat to the city was real.  The five of us tried to prevent the attack with Lyla’s help.  Felicity worked night and day to try to regain control of the program, because we couldn’t go out in the field without being detected by a DNA search.  But we couldn’t stop Emiko and Dante from gassing the business district, not with Archer and Alena working for them, instead of us.  Hundreds of people died that day.”

Felicity continued, “That’s when the entire city turned against us.  They blamed us for everything that had happened.  People had forgotten what the Green Arrow and his team had done in the past.  The city council ordered our arrest.  It’s unbelievable how ungrateful people can be, after all you do for them, but… that’s life.”  She paused, sniffing a bit and trying to control her tears.  “Oliver didn’t want me to go to prison like Dinah did, because I was pregnant with you.  So, the team… we were on the run.  Oliver and John thought it was best for us to go our separate ways and plan to regroup later on, not just to protect ourselves but also our families.  Roy and Thea fled the city first.  As soon as John and Lyla were able to make arrangements for their family and ours, we too escaped Star City.  At the time, I was almost five months pregnant with you, Mia.  Naturally, our priority was to keep you safe.  Your dad thought it was the best time to leave the city and hide, and I agreed.”

“How come you never told me any of this?  You never came for me,” William said, downcast. 

William could not believe that he was hearing the inside story of what really went down in Star City.  He had gotten his information mostly from the news and was just now realizing how slanted and incomplete they were.  He had almost bought all the lies that people were reporting about the Green Arrow, but he had seen several times before how his father had fought for what was good and right, so he had held on to what he knew to be true.  He had always been bullied all throughout high school for bearing his father’s name, which was why he had asked his grandparents to help him petition the court to change his last name to Harris when he reached legal age.  It was the only way he could realize his dreams of making it big in the tech industry some day.  The Queen family name had been a stigma he could not afford to live with, even if he still loved Oliver and Felicity in his heart.

“William…” Felicity replied sadly, “we sent you message after message since the first week you left for Central City, but you didn’t message us back.  We missed you so much, and we wanted to know how you were doing.  We tried calling multiple times, but you never answered.  We assumed you needed the space, but after a few weeks of nothing, we just assumed you chose not to communicate with us, and we respected that, whatever your reasons were.” 

“But I never got any messages… or calls,” said William.

“I know.  I mean, Oliver and I already knew after I did some digital digging,” replied Felicity.  “I resented your grandparents big time back then.  The phone number they gave us for reaching you was bogus.  They must have wanted you to think that we really didn’t care, or for us to think that you didn’t want to have anything to do with us anymore.  We wanted so badly to reach out to you, and we definitely were capable of doing that.  But that was when all the problems with the team and the city started, so we thought it best to leave you alone with your ‘wicked’ grandparents for the time being, especially since not making contact with you was the best way to keep you safe.”

William was quiet, teary-eyed.  He regretted all the time they had lost.  He regretted all the years he had kept a grudge, believing the lie that his dad and step-mom never really wanted him in their lives and had moved on without him.  The estrangement had allowed him to focus on his ambitions anyway.

Seeing his reaction, Felicity pushed on, “I kept an eye on you, though, even after we left Star City, even after Oliver disappeared, and even after you and your grandparents moved to the east coast.  As far as I was concerned, you were still very much my son, even when we already had Mia.  I might have had something to do with how your college applications got mixed up.  You deserved that slot in MIT.”  Felicity grinned at William, even if her eyes were glassy with tears.

William nodded once in acknowledgement.  “Mia might have mentioned that you might have been behind the anonymous company that invested significantly in Harris Consolidated,” he said with an affectionate smile.

“I might have been,” Felicity responded, giving him a cute wink.  “The Wizard of Oz was my favorite.”

“Thank you,” he said.

* * *

Mia had been mostly silent, listening to their exchange and taking in the untold history of what had gone down about two decades ago.  She was mulling over the facts when her mouth went ahead of her brain and she unknowingly blurted out what was bothering her.  “I still don’t understand what all of this has to do with why Arsenal is a ticking time bomb, and why he nearly killed a civilian and seriously injured my boyfr— Agent Hawke.”  She stopped to clear her throat and give herself an imaginary face-palm. 

Felicity had not seen her daughter’s face blush in a very, very long time, and it made her smile.  Mia was beautiful, even with her unkempt blonde waves and make-up free face.  Pink cheeks only made her prettier.  It must be the genes, she thought.  And it wasn’t the only thing that delighted her at the moment.  It was the thought that there was evidently something going on between her daughter and John Diggle’s adopted son.  It was probably the best news she’d heard in years. 

When she had asked John to help her keep an eye on Mia in Star City a year ago, she knew that John would ask Connor to do it.  Connor was a good kid.  The thought had crossed her mind – the possibility that if Connor and Mia were to become friends, they might more than hit it off.  Felicity knew her daughter well; she knew that Mia would someday fall for someone who was close to being the badass that she was, or better.  (Mia’s standards were high, like the woman that raised her and the woman that trained her.)  Felicity didn’t mind Mia and Connor becoming a couple, a badass power couple.  Like she and Oliver used to be.

When Felicity did not answer, Roy did it for her.  It was his secret to tell anyway. 

“It happened years later.  We found out that Thea was… expecting.  We didn’t want anybody to know, because of the dangers we were constantly in.  But she miscarried, and she was depressed after that.  She wanted Felicity to know, so we tried to reach out for the first time in years since Oliver disappeared.  Only, we had stayed off the grid for so long that for some reason, we slipped up.  Archer traced our location, and Dante came after us.  Felicity knew that something had gone wrong because we did not check in when we made it to the rendezvous point, which, by the time Thea and I realized it, had already become a trap to capture her.  So, she sent Spartan and Black Canary instead.  John and Dinah got there in time to save Thea, but I was the casualty.”

“Wait.  Wasn’t Dinah in prison?” Mia asked, confused with the timeline.

“She got out before that,” Felicity answered this time, “but that’s another long story.  You’ll have to ask her to tell you about it some other time.”  She gave Mia a pat on her arm and continued the story.  “Anyway, Thea refused to let Roy bleed out and die of the knife wounds that Dante had given him, so she convinced Dinah and John to help her get Roy to the only remaining Lazarus Pit that she knew to find.”

“The what Pit?” William asked.

“Another long story,” Felicity replied.  “For now, just know that there are places on this earth with pools of mystical waters that could heal fatal wounds… and bring dead people back to life.”

Mia’s and William’s eyes grew wide in astonishment.  “And one of those Pits saved Roy’s life?” asked William.

“Yup,” Felicity answered.  “There was a hitch, though.  The Pit can heal, but it changes a person, and I mean, CHANGES a person.”

“I’m assuming you are referring to the kind of change that makes a person lose control and want to murder someone?  Like what happened tonight?” Mia asked again, this time looking at Roy for confirmation.

Roy nodded, grinding his teeth.  The tension on his body returned. 

Everyone was quiet for a while.

“Mia,” Felicity began to speak again, “Roy and Thea have had to live with his bloodlust since then, but it had gotten worse over time.  One day, when you were maybe… twelve years old, Thea and Roy intervened in a random mugging in Bludhaven.  Thea tried to stop Roy from killing the mugger, but he’d been so angry and overcome by the bloodlust that he… accidentally hurt Thea, real bad.  When she… and the mugger… passed away due to their injuries, Roy made the difficult choice to leave.”

“I went as far away as I possibly can,” Roy interrupted Felicity’s storytelling, “as far away as Lian Yu, so that I won’t end up hurting anyone ever again… until William showed up.”  He bowed his head, clearly ashamed and remorseful about what had happened in the mission earlier.  “And now, I’m back here, doing damage again.”

Mia didn’t think she was capable of empathizing with someone like her brother could.  But there she was, standing in front of the vigilante her father had trained and mentored, feeling something in her chest that was foreign to her.  She’d known William only for a few weeks, but he was already rubbing off on her.  She would never admit it to anyone just yet, but she thought that compassion felt good deep inside.

Mia reached out and touched Roy’s hand that was gripping the side of the metal table they all stood around.  “Hey, don’t worry about it.  Agent Hawke will bounce back in no time.  He’s a tough guy, inside and out,” she said.  She had meant to make Roy feel better, but she hadn’t realized that her words didn’t quite come out right.

Felicity’s eyebrows shot up to her ever-so-slightly wrinkled hairline and her jaw dropped in surprise.  Had she just heard an innuendo coming out of Mia’s mouth?  Growing up, Mia did have some moments when she would babble like her mother, but this was the first time that Felicity ever witnessed her daughter’s brain-to-mouth filter malfunctioning.  She never thought Mia was capable of faux pas.  It definitely was genetic. 

Felicity grinned.  Connor Hawke _was_ Mia’s type after all, whether she admitted it or not, and Felicity was thrilled about it.  She never would have thought that after twenty years of darkness, she’d still turned out to be a lot like her mother when it came to being interested in a daughter’s love life.  She suddenly missed her mom, whom she hadn’t spoken with since her father, Noah Kuttler, was murdered by the Ninth Circle.

Mia saw the mischievous look on her mother’s face and the glint in her eyes.  Before Felicity could utter a word to tease her for her slip-up, she asked Roy a familiar question to redirect the conversation.  “What was my Dad like?”

Roy looked up, startled by the unexpected question.  “Why do you ask?”

“I understand you were his mentee.  What was it like learning from him how to fight?” Mia asked again.

“Pain.  Definitely pain,” Roy responded.  “Oliver shot me with an arrow through the leg.  That was how my training started.”

Felicity smirked, remembering the incident.  She remembered those days when Roy was slapping water in a bowl for hours and getting beat up by Oliver on the training mats in the foundry.  The poor guy.

“What?!” William exclaimed.  “Dad did that?”

Roy replied, “He was a slave driver, the old Oliver.  He had a lot of baggage, carried a huge burden on his shoulders back then, which was why he could identify with me.  But he was growing, changing.  He taught me how to channel all the pent-up emotions so that I could become someone better than just a petty thief.  He taught me how to fight, how to subdue an enemy without killing him.  He taught me that fighting to protect people and put away bad guys was all about finding a better way, instead of taking justice into one’s hands.  He said he had learned that from a very good friend.”  Roy paused, glancing Felicity’s way.  She smiled back at him to acknowledge that he was referring to her.

“You see, Mia, fighting wasn’t the only thing I learned from Oliver.  I think that the best thing your Dad had taught me was how to be a better man – how to be a hero to my community, to my family, to the people I love.  It’s not about muscle or machismo.  You, of all people, should know that.  I hear you are undefeated in these parts.”  Roy paused again, smiling at his mentor’s daughter.

After a couple of seconds, he added, his gazed locked on to Mia, “Being a hero means sacrifice.  It’s about putting the needs and welfare of others before your own.  In all the years that I’ve known Oliver, he had always put others first, even when it hurt, physically or otherwise.  That’s what made him a hero, whether people recognized it or not.” 

Felicity’s heart soared upon hearing his words.  William was tearing up.  Mia was speechless.

Roy took a deep breath and continued.  “I’ve tried to honor him by following his footsteps.  There was a time when the League of Assassins had pushed Oliver to a corner, forcing him to join them or have his secret identity exposed.  It was an impossible decision to make, but Oliver had the guts to reveal his secret just to protect the rest of us, especially Thea.  He was stubborn, yes, thinking that he was the only one who had to make sacrifices all the time.  But I manned up and volunteered to take the fall for him, as John, Felicity, and I agreed.  He deserved the sacrifice I chose to make.  I went to prison for a while, after confessing to being the Arrow.  But in the end, it all worked out.”

“The Green Arrow always found a way,” Felicity remarked, smiling.

“I had to go through a lot in order to do something heroic.  I needed to learn.  But it’s different with you, Mia.  Hero blood flows through your veins.  You better believe it,” said Roy.  “You should be proud of your parents, as William is.  Oliver and Felicity have sacrificed everything for their family and for this city.  It’s their purpose.  I hope that you, too, can find yours.”

Mia swallowed hard.  The revelations were all too overwhelming for her at the moment.  She felt everyone’s gaze on her, expecting her to respond, but she couldn’t find the words.  She _was_ proud of her father, _and_ her mother, but she still couldn’t say it out loud.  Not just yet.

“Agent Hawke is awake,” Dinah’s voice echoed from upstairs.  “He’s asking for you, Mia.” 

Felicity took that as the cue that this conversation was over.  She knew that Mia was smart enough to understand.  She could see it on her face.  “Go,” she told Mia, nodding in the direction of Dinah’s voice.  Felicity watched a corner of her daughter’s lips turn up for a small, shy smile before turning away towards the stairway.  It was all the encouragement she needed in the midst of all the chaos they were up against.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This time I'm really curious about what you think of this chapter, or maybe of this fic. Care to share? Kind comments and constructive criticisms politely written are welcome. :-)
> 
> How do you think the show will end? I wonder how much of my version of the story makes it to canon...


	6. Canaries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in posting this. RL has been tough. Anyways, this turned out better when completed after 7x18 because I was able to draw material from the episode even if the rest of this fic is canon divergent. Like 7x18, this chapter is all female, too, but it's packed with more drama than action. Despite the delay, I liked how it turned out. I hope you do too.

 

Thwack!  The sounds of bo staffs clashing echoed in the cold, dank air in the team’s secret lair at the basement, mingling with the whirring sounds of the computers and the soft, intermittent blowing of steam from the pipes overhead.  Every now and then the sounds of three females grunting blended in.  It triggered reminiscences in Felicity’s mind of when Oliver, Diggle, and Sarah used to spar down at the foundry many, many years ago.

Sarah.  There had been a number of times in the past several years when thoughts of her had crossed Felicity’s mind, and each time, the original Black Canary had been sorely missed.  The two of them had had a rocky start as acquaintances in her second year of working with the Arrow, and Felicity still kidded herself each time she remembered how jealous she had been of one of Oliver’s ex-girlfriends turned assassin and vigilante.  Yet, over time they had become very dear friends. 

Yes, Felicity missed her blonde friend from time to time – like she did as she watched her daughter Mia spar with Dinah and Zoe – but it wasn’t the same as when she missed the love of her life.  With Sarah, it was the kind that made her somewhat thrilled.  There was an element of anticipation, not knowing when her time-traveling friend would suddenly appear.    There was predictability and intentionality, too, for any time Felicity very desperately needed the White Canary, all she needed to do was contact the Legends on the Waverider, just like when she needed help convincing Black Siren to stand down when the Earth-2 version of Laurel was framed for murder all those years ago.  But missing Oliver?  It was completely different.  It was the kind that made her lonely heart ache. 

With Oliver, there used to be an element of improbability; Felicity used to hold on to a glimmer of hope that her husband, the hero of their city, would still be alive and return.  But after twenty years, that hope had faded, such that improbability had been replaced long ago by a dreadful impossibility.  She had learned to live with the painful reality that the best thing she could do was to honor his legacy by continuing the valiant fight to save their dying city.  If she could get her daughter to do the same, she would have considered it a victory on her part already.

“Ah!” Mia cried out in pain, instantly pulling Felicity out of her deep thoughts.

Dinah and Zoe froze in place, as Felicity’s glare darted in their direction.  The Canaries weren’t sure which one of them struck Mia on the cheek.  It happened too fast.

With the back of her hand, Mia wiped off some of the blood from the cut on her cheek, which was surely going to bruise soon.  “I’m fine,” she assured everyone with a stern voice.  She wasn’t a baby, even when she knew that sometimes her mother and her aunt still felt the need to treat her like one.  She wouldn’t have asked the Canaries to train her in using the staff if she didn’t think she could handle a few cuts and bruises.  Mia was so used to pain by now.

“That’s enough sparring for today,” Dinah said.  Zoe gave her aunt a look that said she knew Mia would protest.

True enough, Mia responded stubbornly, “I can handle it,” giving the Black Canary a pointed look of disapproval.

Dinah shifted on her feet, planting her staff firmly on the ground and leaning against it slightly.  “I know you can.  You’re the Green Arrow’s daughter.”  She sighed, trying to save herself the trouble of arguing with the stubborn Smoak-Queen spawn.  “But it’s late, and tomorrow is a big day for all of us, including you.  We have to be in the best shape possible.”

It was Mia’s turn to sigh.  She never liked giving in, but she knew that Dinah was right. 

Tomorrow was “the day” - the day they breach the other, more surreptitious base of operations of Eden Corp. in the Glades, which was merely a front for what remained of the Ninth Circle after Emiko Queen’s demise years ago.  From there, the main goal was to disable the Archer program with a super-virus that Felicity and William had engineered for weeks, allowing them to locate and disarm the bombs that were supposed to be detonated remotely and simultaneously in Star City. 

Rene, as Mayor of the Glades, had continued to feign allegiance to Kevin Dale and had passed on valuable intel as to the location of the secret base of Eden Corp. to the team through Zoe.  However, he could only keep Kevin Dale from discovering what he’d done for a brief time, or Dale would find out that his own daughter was a Canary, too.  This was why their vigilante team had but a 48-hour window to plan an effective, covert attack and see it to fruition, without glitches this time. 

Every last Canary that Dinah and Zoe had been able to contact without being intercepted by Archer – thanks to the genius of Felicity’s remote jammer – had come to their secret lair in trickles over the past two days.  All seven of them.  While Felicity and William had been busy over the past few weeks, the Ninth Circle had somehow managed to dismantle the Canary network.  Kevin Dale’s engineers and technical analysts – headed by none other than Alena Whitlock, the mole who had been planted by Dante in Team Arrow at the inception of Smoak Tech – had developed a special type of computerized headgear that enabled the Ninth Circle to track every single vigilante that had ever been in contact with Dinah Drake over the course of six months.  The digital tracker in those high-tech helmets, combined with Archer’s DNA scanning protocol had located one Canary after another in just a week’s time.  Fifteen Canaries had been caught and had given their lives rather than betray the other birds of justice.  In the last two days, the seven remaining birds had risked coming out of hiding to join the team in the impending mission.

Every member of their new, expanded vigilante team had been preparing for this for the last two days - planning, strategizing, simulating scenarios, sparring and staying fit, and psyching up themselves that victory was not an impossible, elusive dream.  They had to succeed, or Star City was doomed.  If they didn’t make it out of the enemy’s facility alive, or if they get caught, the destruction of all that’s left of Star City was a done deal.  Everything they’d been working so hard for – all these years – would come to nothing.  Even Mia, who had just joined the vigilante movement recently – no matter how hesitantly at first – felt the weight of the mission on her shoulders.

Felicity thought that there was no better time to reach out to their long-time friends and teammates, John and Lyla Diggle, at the risk of either of them getting caught via DNA scanning.  Through Connor, she had reached them, and they had come to join them on the mission; however, they could only wait from a location that was off the grid, miles away from the scope of Archer’s reach.  Because they were formerly with ARGUS, which had been infiltrated by the Ninth Circle and decommissioned by the government many years ago, the enemy had everything on them, including their DNA.  The moment John or Lyla stepped into the boundaries of Star City or the Glades, the Glades PD would be after them in mere minutes.  John and Lyla were ready to fight, but they needed Felicity and the team to disable the Archer program from the Eden Corp. base before they could cross into the “scan zone” and help the team disarm the bombs, which had already been strategically placed in various locations in Star City.

* * *

Zoe left to retire for the night as Dinah put away the bo staffs. 

Felicity, on the other hand, approached Mia and asked, “Are you sure you’re okay?  If you need help with the cut, I can--”

“Mom…”

“Mia… I just…”  Felicity paused to think about what to say that would not cause her daughter to put up her wall again.  “I know you can tend to your own minor injuries.  And I know you’ve done it for the past couple of years by yourself.  Well, maybe not completely on your own.  I’m guessing Connor’s been there to help fix you up more recently…”

“MOM…”

“Okay, okay.  But I am still your mother.  And last time I checked you are still my daughter.  I care about you, but you haven’t given me a chance to show how much I care about you for so long.  So, could you please, just let me help you for once?”

Mia uncrossed her arms from her chest and let them fall on her sides, letting her mother know that she was welcome to come closer and take a look.

Dinah came back from putting the staffs away and approached them.  “The medic kit is in that box over there,” she said, using her chin to point to a brown box in the corner of the room.  As Felicity went to retrieve the kit, Dinah dared to start a conversation with Mia.

“You know, you don’t have to be tough all the time, especially when you’re with us,” Dinah said, leaning back against a metal table near where Mia stood.  “Canaries are there for each other.”

“I’m not one of your birds,” Mia retorted.

“Maybe not now.  Maybe not ever.  Who knows?  But if I were you, I wouldn’t close the doors.  As far as I’m concerned, vigilantism is a noble profession in these parts,” said Dinah, with a hint of humor in her voice.  Mia wasn’t smiling though, but Dinah continued to speak, this time with less teasing. 

“When your father and I first met in Hub City, I told him to stay away from me.  He was trying to recruit me into his team of vigilantes back then, but I refused.  You see, when I’d lost my partner… or thought I had lost my partner, my life had changed… for the worse.  Yeah, I did get a superpower that turned me into a badass whom no one dared cross, but I was broken and empty deep inside.  I didn’t know what to do with my life.  I just wandered from place to place trying to find my purpose in the midst of the darkness that I had allowed into my heart.  I was so lost, so angry.  Anybody who got in my way… Well, let’s just say that there was a time in my life when I thought that my canary cry had defined me as a person and made me think that nothing could get in my way… until I lost that power later on, too.”  Dinah paused, thinking back on the day when she had discovered that it hurt too much to use her cry again – the day she had to accept that she wouldn’t be able to use her superpower again because of what Stanley the Slasher had done to her.

Mia was quiet, trying to distract herself from the heart-to-heart that the Black Canary was giving her by wondering what was taking her mother so long.  From the corner of her eye, she saw Felicity taking her time preparing the things she needed to mend the cut on her cheek.  Her mom could obviously overhear their conversation, and Mia knew her mom all too well to know that she was stalling to give Dinah the time to give her some much-needed talking to.

“Mia,” Dinah continued, “when your dad found me, he offered me a way out of my messed-up situation.  He had seen something in me worth saving that I’d never thought was still there.  He gave me a shot at redemption.  He helped me find my purpose, and like your mom, I know that I’m supposed to be brave and strong to help those who are weak and afraid, to defend those who are threatened and oppressed but can’t fight back, even if it means making sacrifices.  That was what your father did the whole time I knew him.  That’s what I’ve been trying to do all these years, even when hope often seemed… gone.  That’s why the Canaries exist, and that’s what this team is still fighting for.”

Felicity came back with the supplies and set them on the metal table.  She looked at Mia but didn’t say anything.  Just one look at Dinah, and the leader of the Canaries knew that Felicity wanted her to keep going.

Dinah told Mia, “Your mother told me that you left home to find your purpose, to discover who you really are.  Judging by how angry and closed off you still are, I’d be right in thinking that you haven’t figured that out yet.  I hope you do.  Real soon.  Because after tomorrow… well… Things around here might change permanently… drastically.  You just might find yourself regretting all the time you’ve lost running away from the legacy you’ve inherited from your parents, regretting all the energy you’ve spent trying to survive in this jungle and proving to yourself that you are stronger and better than any of us.  That is, if you live to see another day in Star City.”

Felicity reached up to treat Mia’s cut with an antiseptic-soaked piece of cotton, but Mia suddenly held her by the wrist and gently stopped her mother from starting to treat her injury. 

Looking at Dinah, Mia asked pointedly, “If you really knew my dad as well as you say you did, can you honestly tell me that he made the right decision to choose others over his own family?”  There was a fire in her soul that needed quenching.  This was the real reason she’d been angry all this time.

Dinah answered, “Look, I wasn’t there when Oliver had to make that choice.  I didn’t really know why he had to, or what was at stake.  I was in prison.  But when I got out, I learned about what happened from John Diggle and your mom.  I understand why you resent the fact that you grew up without your dad in your life.  And believe me, your mother understands firsthand how hard it is to grow up without a father.  But your mother and I, our fathers made choices that were not half as noble as the ones that your father had to make time and time again.” 

Dinah’s voice was no longer soft and gentle.  It was serious and stern.  She even took a step closer towards Mia. 

Challenging the young Queen to a stare-down, Dinah spoke, “You’re wondering why Oliver Queen chose to give his life and to give up a future with the ones he loved?  It’s because he was a hero who understood what sacrifice is all about.  And if you’re asking me whether or not he had made the right choice that one last time, I won’t hesitate to tell you in a heartbeat.  Yes!  It was the right choice.  He knew it.  Your mother knew it.  Too bad you were too young to understand it.  But the choice had to be made because _the world_ depended on it back then.  The only reason _you’re_ still alive to wonder and complain about it now is because your father had the guts to do what needed to be done.  So, if you want to keep up this stubborn, self-absorbed attitude instead of channeling all your pent-up emotions and childhood hang-ups to heroic pursuits that really make a difference in people’s lives, then go ahead.  I won’t stand in your way.  That choice is _yours_ to make.”

Dinah gave Mia one last I-meant-every-word-I-said look, and then the Black Canary walked away.

Felicity blinked away the tears that welled up in her eyes and attempted to reach for Mia’s cut again.  This time, Mia let her.

* * *

“She’s right, you know,” Felicity spoke softly as she wiped the blood off her cheek with the soaked cotton pad.  She wanted her daughter to understand.  She wanted her daughter to tell her that finally she understood. 

But Mia was silent.  She said nothing until her mom finished treating her cut and plastered a sterile, adhesive, antiseptic pad over it.  Felicity was about to put away the supplies when Mia finally spoke.

“So, all those years you were telling me about my dad… They really weren’t just supposed to make him or you look good in my eyes?  Everybody I’ve ever spoken to recently… the people in this… team… They all say he’s a hero, like you’ve always said.”

“It’s the truth,” replied Felicity.  “There’s not a day since your father disappeared that I didn’t wish you could have known him.  I think the only good thing about you growing up without Oliver is that you didn’t have to miss him like I do. Every. Single. Day.”

To Felicity’s surprise, Mia launched herself at her mother.  She wrapped her arms around her mom and squeezed her tight, just like she used to do when she was a little girl.  Felicity’s tears fell.  As far as she was concerned, Mia didn’t have to say the words.  Her daughter was just like her husband, who was a man of few words but loved with so much passion.  Felicity hugged Mia tighter and ran her palm on her daughter’s back in circles, just like she used to when her little girl needed comfort.  They stayed that way for a couple of minutes, until they pulled back when they both got their beating hearts under control.

“We should go get some rest,” Felicity told Mia, cupping her girl’s cheek with one hand. 

Mia nodded.  She helped her mom put away the supplies, and then she let her mom link their arms as they walked out of the lair.

“Mom, when all of this is over, I’m coming home,” said Mia.  It was obvious that she was trying to keep herself from crying.

“Oh?”  Felicity couldn’t believe her ears.

“Yeah,” Mia replied.  “Doesn’t matter where, as long as we’re together.”

“O—kay,” said Felicity, her lips turning up for a smile.  “But, aren’t you being a little too presumptuous?  We don’t even know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

“We’re gonna win this, Mom.  I know it.”  Mia’s voice was confident and resolute.

“And how do you know that?” asked her mother.

Without hesitation, she answered, “I’m the Green Arrow’s daughter.  And just like those Canaries and everyone in the team, I’m gonna make sure that my dad’s sacrifice was well worth it.”

Felicity smiled.  “That’s our girl.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what did you think of this one? Would love to hear from you. You may have noticed that I have added another chapter to this fic, which was supposed to be just seven chapters. The next chapter will focus on John Diggle. I couldn't skip him, because he has been a huge part of Oliver's and Felicity's journeys as heroes. It will be the penultimate chapter, and then there's gonna be a surprise for the final chapter (I hope). :-) 
> 
> Some thoughts:  
> 1\. I've always been skeptical and suspicious of Alena's character on the show. I still am. In my opinion, Felicity Smoak has always been a good judge of character, except in Alena's case. I still think that underneath the cuteness and charm, Alena is evil. Her reaction to the Archer program's ability to track her using her DNA, as well as to Felicity knowing her last name, was kind of off to me. She really feels like a wild card in the story line of the show.  
> 2\. Even before the plot twist on Black Siren's arc, I had already decided that she was not going to play a major role in this fic. I liked that she got redeemed in the show at 7x18 in a reasonable and sensible way, but Black Siren becoming yet another Black Canary (even if in another earth) is not very appealing to me. How many Black (or White) Canaries does a show really need? Well, that's just me. Sorry for the mini rant.


	7. John Diggle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally... I am able to post again. I'm very sorry for the delay, but really, RL has been exceptionally hectic these days. I do hope you'll enjoy this, especially the surprise at the end. ;-)

“I don’t think we’re getting out of here anytime soon,” John huffed in frustration as he slumped down beside Mia inside a dilapidated elevator at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

Just seconds before one of the Ninth Circle’s bombs had gone off, he and Mia had taken the leap of faith and jumped into the dark elevator shaft of an abandoned multi-level parking building in the south side of Star City.  There had been no time to check whether or not they were jumping into their deaths.  They just jumped.

They were glad that they had landed on an empty car at the bottom of the shaft, and yet their relief had been cut short when the bomb exploded about three floors above and debris started raining down on them.  John had covered Mia with his huge frame, but Mia had been immediately able to open the hatch on the elevator’s roof and had pulled him into the car with her just in time, before a slab of concrete landed on his head.  They had thought that the car could not take the impact of the falling debris, but it held despite the ugly denting of the roof above them, until the rumbling of the abandoned building had stopped.

For the last thirty minutes, John had been trying to find a way out of their predicament, worried about the prospect of oxygen soon running out.  Even though he had managed to clear the opening of the elevator above them, he had not found a way for them to climb out of the shaft safely without any gear.  Mia had suggested climbing the walls, but John didn’t think that was safe, since there was no way to guarantee that what was left of the structure would not give way after such a powerful blast, which probably leveled the rest of the building.  The elevator shaft had been their best bet for surviving the explosion, but now John was afraid it was also going to be their grave.  If no one came to their rescue, it was just a matter of time.

Their injuries were minor.  Not counting bruises and some abrasions and cuts, John thinks he has only a minor wrist fracture from the fall, which was why scaling the wall of the shaft wasn’t really a good idea.  Mia, on the other hand, only complained of the left ankle that she sprained when she landed on top of the elevator; she had favored that foot in order to keep herself from toppling over and losing her grip on her bow.  The first thing that John had done when the shaking of the building had ceased was to check her for injuries.  He had promised Felicity that he would keep her daughter safe whatever happened.

“My mom won’t stop until she finds us,” said Mia, “and then they’ll come for us.”  She was clearly out of her element, and it wasn’t just because of the explosion that rocked the entire building.  It was because she felt that she and John had failed their part of the mission.

Breaching the secret base of Eden Corp. earlier that evening had been successful.  As soon as Felicity and William were able to upload their super-virus into the Archer system in the server room, the members of the vigilante team and the remaining Canaries had spread out and moved in to the identified locations of the bombs.  Connor and Mia had rendezvoused with John and Lyla Diggle at the outskirts of the city and had decided to split up into two pairs when Felicity contacted them through coms and told them that there was yet one more bomb that had just been located by the scanner in an abandoned parking building on the south side of the city.  Lyla and her adopted son decided to proceed to their original destination, while John and Mia had volunteered to take care of the bomb to which no team had yet been sent to disarm it. 

En route to the bomb’s location, they had encountered a few members of the Deathstroke Gang, which had set up an illegal checkpoint in the middle of the road as a means of extorting money and other valuables from travelers into “their” part of the city.  As much as John had not wanted to engage, Mia’s stubbornness had ticked off one of the gang members, who had recognized her from a previous encounter in the market when Connor had asked to see their leader, JJ Diggle.  The resulting skirmish had delayed them significantly, and although their masked leader had ordered his guys to stand down upon seeing none other than his estranged father, John and Mia still had arrived at the parking building with too little time to disarm the bomb properly.

They had been aware that the virus that Felicity and William planted into the Archer program was only going to disable the system temporarily.  Everyone involved in the mission had been briefed that they only had a fifteen-minute window to follow Felicity’s instructions and disarm the bomb.  Their window had lapsed due to the unfortunate delay caused by the trouble with the Deathstroke Gang.  Just as they were getting started to disarm the bomb, the countdown to detonation had started.  When they’d realized that their enemies must have already overridden the virus that temporarily disabled Archer, triggering the countdown, they knew that the only thing they could do was to try to minimize the damage by moving the bomb away from the side of the building that was adjacent to a row of residential buildings and then hope to survive the blast themselves.  They had driven the van like crazy all the way to the far end of the building, and as soon as they screeched to a halt, they jumped out of the vehicle and ran to the nearest elevator shaft.

“Let’s not keep our hopes up,” came John’s reply.

“Why not?” Mia protested. 

“In this day and age, hope does not come by so easily,” John answered.

Mia responded, “But we can’t just give up.  I refuse to die down here.  Not like this.”

John did not say anything after that.  He just closed his eyes and massaged his sweaty forehead with his fingers.

* * *

 

“Your head wasn’t in the game, was it?” Mia asked frankly.  She had seen the look on John’s face the gang leader had taken off his mask.  She had only met John Diggle in person about thirty minutes ago, but it did not take a genius to be able to put two and two together, based on the little that Connor had told her about his adoptive father.  Seeing his biological son, who had gone wayward and rogue some years ago, had thrown the veteran vigilante off kilter.

John sighed.  When he opened his eyes, he told her, “I wasn’t expecting to run into him tonight.”

“By _him_ you mean your son JJ, right?”

John simply nodded.  “I’m guessing Connor’s told you about our fateful family drama.”

“The gist of it, yes.”

Mia turned to look at him, studying his face like she had been trained to do when she wanted to get the truth from someone who was being difficult.  “I grew up without my dad, and I’ve always resented that.  But now I’m not sure which is worse – that, or raising your own flesh and blood and watching him turn against you and against everything you believe in.  It must be hard on you and Lyla.”

“Losing my biological son to a notorious cause was my greatest failure,” John confessed.  “Before JJ left us, I thought that not being able to save the city alongside Oliver all those years ago was my biggest regret.  Turns out, I had failed more miserably in the parenting department.”

“I’m sure you tried to do your best.  Connor turned out okay,” Mia remarked, as an attempt to console the kind-hearted man.  Her mother had recently been telling her stories of the vigilante hero once called Spartan, who had always been her mom and dad’s closest, most loyal friend.

“Yeah, he did.  He’s a good kid.”  John’s lips turned up for a small smile, briefly reminiscing their boys’ growing up years.  Connor and JJ had been best buddies when they were kids even if they weren’t exactly the same age.  That all changed when JJ had gotten entangled with the wrong crowd and got roped into a gang by none other than the escaped convict, Joe Wilson, the founder of the gang that he had named after the villainous title of his father.

Mia thought it was a good opportunity to find out more about Connor’s back story.  Maybe focusing on John’s success with his adopted son would ease the pain caused by the rebellious one.  So, she dared to ask, “How did Connor become your other son, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Long story.”

“We’ve got time.  Like you said, I doubt we’re going anywhere anytime soon.”

John smiled.  The way Mia was such an impeccable blend of Oliver and Felicity amused him so much.

“It happened after your dad had gone and disappeared,” John began to explain.  “His father, Ben Turner, reached out to us from prison.  He was still in Slabside, waiting for his sentence to be shortened and for him to be given his freedom back, as former DA lawyer Laurel Lance had promised to do for him.  He had gotten wind of a rumor that Dinah, who was also an inmate there at the time, had been targeted by a terrorist organization that had assets inside the prison.”

“Ninth Circle?”

“Turner, who was known as Bronze Tiger, had no knowledge of the Ninth Circle, and Felicity and I thought that it was better that way.  But yeah, no doubt it was the Ninth Circle.  Emiko was probably trying to tie up loose ends,” John agreed with her.  “Anyway, since the team had already been disbanded then, there was just Felicity and me and Lyla.  There was no way we were gonna get a free pass into Slabside, not while Emiko was running the city behind her puppet politicians.  We couldn’t go to the SCPD with this information either.  It was Felicity’s idea to find the only person alive other than Oliver that knew a way to break into the prison undetected.”

“Who?”

“Your Aunt Nyssa’s older sister.  Her name is Talia.”

Mia’s eyes widened upon hearing this piece of information.  She had never known that Nyssa still had family.  Nyssa had never mentioned having a sister name Talia.  Her eyes narrowing in curiosity, she asked, “I’m guessing Talia is a lot like Nyssa.  You know, when it comes to kicking ass?”

“Like Nyssa, Talia was a skilled warrior of the League of Assassins.  In fact, she trained your father for a time, taught him how to be the Arrow, and even gave him the hood he’d worn when he first terrorized the criminals of Starling City as a vigilante.”

“Wow…  This story is getting better and better.  I can’t believe Mom never told me any of this,” Mia commented.  “So, Talia helped Dinah escape from prison?” she asked.

John shook his head.  “Narrowly, yes.  Turner was our man on the inside to ensure that nothing would get in the way of Dinah’s extraction, but the prison guards had been tipped off somehow and he’d been made.  He knew that as soon as he got out of solitary, the bounty would be on his head instead.  A week after Dinah’s escape, we learned that Turner had been murdered in Slabside.  Before everything had gone down that day, his last words to Dinah had been a plea to make sure that his little boy would get a chance to have a life, one that was better than he had.”

“So, you took Connor into your home.”

“Yeah.  Dinah had no plans of ever settling down.  And since she was a fugitive on the run, she thought that Lyla and I could give Connor a better life, so she brought Connor to our safe house.  We didn’t hesitate to take on the responsibility.”

“Did you ever try to convince JJ to leave the gang?” Mia asked. 

“My wife and I tried to reason with her.  We even reached a point when our conflict had become physical, and I realized I wasn’t going to win back my son using my fist.”  John paused, thinking deeply.  Those times had been really tough, especially without his best friend Oliver to help him go through the devastation.  “Our last ditch effort was to ask Felicity to find Slade Wilson.”

“Slade Wilson?” Mia asked again, frowning.

“Slade Wilson was another of your father’s mentors.  They met on the island of Lian Yu.  Slade trained your father in hand-to-hand combat and many other stuff.  Later on, Slade became a bad guy and had gone after your dad in revenge.  Another very long story,” John explained.  “Much later on, with your dad’s help, he found redemption from his crimes, but it had been too late to redeem his son Joe.”

Mia was trying her best to keep up.  “So… Mom found Slade Wilson for you, and you asked him to help you convince JJ to walk away from Deathstroke Gang for good.”  John simply pursed his lips in response and looked down.  Mia said, “I’m guessing things did not go as planned.”  John shook his head in sheer frustration.

* * *

Mia truly appreciated John Diggle’s honesty and his willingness to narrate the events in the past.  The more she discovered about what had happened, the better she was able to piece together the puzzle in her head.  And the more she appreciated how Connor Hawke had been a survivor all these years.

“Can I ask you something else?” Mia suddenly blurted out.

“Sure.”

“You and my parents have been friends for decades, right?  Why do you think my mom didn’t talk much about what happened in the past?  How come she hardly speaks of what really happened to my dad?  Growing up, she would tell me stories of Team Arrow in your glory days, and she would always tell me that my father was a hero.  But, she has never told me why my father left and never came back.  What really happened to him?”

“That’s because none of us actually knew what really happened to Oliver when he left with the Monitor to fight a battle in… in another earth.”

“What do you mean? And who’s the Monitor?”  Mia was now even more intrigued.  When Felicity and Roy had narrated the events from twenty years ago, they had spoken of a pit of healing waters that could bring even a dead person back to life.  Here was Diggle, speaking of another earth.  She found it quite incredible… and too good to be true.

“See, this is exactly why your mother probably never told you how things had gone down back then.  It’s complicated.”

“Try me.”

John patiently explained what parallel universes and doppelgangers were, who the other superheroes were (including the Legends), and how time travel worked (in general).  By the time he was done, Mia’s jaw gaped open in disbelief, and the frown on her face betrayed how puzzling this was all to her.  She could hardly believe that her parents and their team had had to deal with extraordinary situations in their struggle as heroes.  In the end, she asked, “So, this Monitor guy… He was responsible for my father’s disappearance?”

“Not exactly.  It was more like your dad’s decision,” replied John.

“What?”

“The Monitor revealed to Oliver that the Flash and Supergirl – both superheroes that were friends with your dad – were going to die trying to prevent a catastrophe.  Thousands upon thousands of people were going to die, including two of his very good friends that those people depended on.  Oliver couldn’t allow it.  He just wouldn’t.  When the Monitor explained that the balance of the universe needed to be maintained, then someone else needed to take the place of those who would be spared from their fate.  Your father made a deal with the Monitor – his life for theirs.  The Flash and Supergirl survived, but Oliver had already bound himself to the deal.”

“Did my mom find out?”

“Eventually, Oliver told her, yeah,” John replied, but his voice was sad.  “You were a few months old when the Monitor came back to collect.  Oliver had no choice but to tell Felicity.  If that had happened one or two years prior, Felicity would have gone ballistic, but she had grown a lot through the years.  That time, she had understood his selfless decision and backed it up with all the courage she had left in her.  It didn’t mean, though, that it hadn’t been very hard on her.”

Mia was quiet, absorbing all this new information intently.

John continued, “The Monitor had given your dad a day to set his affairs in order and say goodbye to family and friends.  Oliver was just as devastated as Felicity, maybe even more so.  He questioned his judgment and wondered if he would have made the same choice almost a year prior if he had known that they were going to have you.” 

“Didn’t he try to find another way?  Mom used to say that whenever they – or the team – seemed to be in a bind, Dad had always found another way.  She said it was one of the things about him that she had fallen in love with.”

“Your parents had come a very long way, Mia.  Trust me.  But I had never known a time in their lives when they had struggled most with pain than that day when the Monitor came back to take Oliver with him.  It broke them both beyond mending.  I think that a huge part of their pain was because they had you.  I gathered that much from what Felicity told me of that day.”

Mia’s eyes were tearing up now.  Why had her mother not told her about these details before?  Didn’t she deserve to know?  What was there to be afraid of or ashamed of?  She thought that she would have understood if only Felicity would have related things to her the way John had this time around.  She would have been mighty proud of her parents, especially of the father she didn’t get a chance to know.

She wanted to ask John those questions out loud, but someone else’s question beat her to it.

“Anyone down there?!” someone hollered from above.  “Hello?!”  The man’s voice echoed in the elevator shaft.

John Diggle stilled.  He could not believe his ears.  He must have hit his head during their fall, and now he was imagining things.  But he knew that voice.

“John?!  Are you in here?!”  The familiar voice called out again.

This time, John took a deep breath and dared to respond incredulously, “Oliver!  Is that you?!”

“Yes, John, it’s me!  Hang on!  We’ll get you out!” came the reply.

Mia gasped, her chest constricting as a lump formed in her throat.  Could it be?  Could it really be?  Impossible.  Was she really hearing her father’s voice?  Was he really there?  She tried to keep the tears at bay, but then she failed miserably, for the second time that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how was that encounter between Mia and Diggle? More importantly, what are your thoughts on the ending? I am of the opinion (and persuasion) that Oliver's deal with the Monitor in the show will not involve him dying, just leaving to who knows where. So, I've taken the liberty to diverge from canon even further instead of resigning to the possibility that Oliver's character (or Felicity's, for that matter) is going to die. This is my fic after all, even if I do not own the rights to Arrow and its characters. Haha! :-)
> 
> Some thoughts:  
> 1\. It was about time the Arrow writers gave us John Diggle's detailed back story. It just took them 7 yrs! Anyways, I was happy with 7x19. I am also hoping that Diggle's move in the right direction in the second half of season 7 will continue. His character growth took a wrong turn in season 6 (maybe even further back, since he killed his brother), and it felt like he has been stuck. He seemed to have lost his purpose and couldn't make up his mind whether to be loyal to his OTA friends or look out for his own interests. I know his future is bleak, given what happens to his son JJ in the flashforwards, but I hope his integrity and steadfastness do not erode any further than they already had.
> 
> 2\. The flashforwards give me the impression that Mia had never met John Diggle before, which is sad, considering he was among the only three people other than Olicity that know about Mia in present day (that we know so far) - those being Diggle, Alena, and Emiko. I wanted to make up for 20 yrs of lost Diggle-Mia interaction, so I thought a heart-to-heart while trapped in an elevator shaft could help.


	8. Dad & Mia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for the delay in posting this final chapter. My laptop conked out and the entire drive where my files are disappeared. I've just gotten it fixed and I'm relieved that the files (including this one) are still there. I was hoping to have this posted before season 7 finale aired, but nope, it didn't happen. The only plus side is that I was able to incorporate a little of what they did on the 7x22 episode. I hope that you find this a satisfying ending to this future spec fic that was meant to take off from Arrow's flashforwards, with several twists, of course.

It was the sweetest, most beautiful thing that Mia had ever seen – her mother in her father’s embrace in a chaste yet affectionate lip lock – and hopefully, it was just the beginning of many more from then on.  Her mom and dad had finally been reunited after twenty years of separation, of not knowing whether or not they would see each other again.  Mia would never forget the blissful sight for the rest of her life, and she made sure to commit to memory every detail of what she was seeing, so that she could tell her future child or children what her daddy was really like, especially when he was in the same space as her mom.  Mia was deliriously happy for them, for her family.  She was too caught up in the moment that she didn’t even notice the tears that were streaming down her face.

* * *

After the Green Arrow had safely gotten Mia and John Diggle out of the elevator shaft with the help of Lyla and Connor, John had had the wonderful privilege of introducing Mia to her father, Oliver Queen.  There had been no fanfare, just a firm handshake followed in a split second by Oliver’s embrace of the daughter he hadn’t seen or held since she was a few months old.  Holding his Mia close and kissing the crown of her blonde-haired head had said more than mere words could ever express.  When he had left twenty years ago at the Monitor’s bidding, his baby girl had been so small that she could fit snugly in his arm, but now she was all grown up.  And yes, just like he had imagined it countless times, she had grown up to be just as smart and beautiful as her mother.  Oliver had cried as he held his beloved Mia close to his chest with his right arm – the only one that he had left.

Mia, on the other hand, had been in an overwhelmed state, neither shedding a tear nor flashing a cheerful smile.  To her, it had felt surreal – coming face to face with the father she hadn’t known all her life.  She hadn’t been sure whether she should feel overjoyed that she finally got to meet her dad or angry why he had come back just now if it was possible for him to do so after all.  She hadn’t known how to feel or what to think.  One thing she was sure of, though, was that she wanted so badly to get to know her dad more.

However, there hadn’t been time for father and daughter to catch up.  Oliver hadn’t even had the chance to explain why he suddenly appeared and how.  They had hardly pulled away from the hug when Connor had informed them that the Canaries had picked up a distress signal from somewhere inside the Eden Corp. base that Felicity, William, Zoe, and Rene were supposed to have already left an hour or so ago.  Oliver, Mia, John, Lyla, and Connor had immediately met up in the secret lair with the rest of the vigilantes – all of which had successfully disarmed the various bombs scattered in Star City that they’d been sent to disarm.  They all had reached the consensus that Felicity and the others must have been trapped inside the Eden Corp. facility when the Archer system had gone back online. 

Mia knew her mom well.  So did Oliver and the other veteran vigilantes that used to be part of Team Arrow.  Felicity would have been monitoring the status of all the bombs.  She must have noticed that the last bomb that Mia and John were supposed to have prevented from being detonated was still on an active countdown.  She must have convinced William, Zoe, and Rene that they should stay and bide some time for Mia and John by overriding Archer before it went back online.  Overriding the system after the super-virus had already done its job might have triggered a fail-safe protocol, initiating lockdown and trapping them inside the large, maze-like server room at the Eden Corp. base, which was masquerading as a harmless Galaxy One warehouse.  The only good thing that they must have had going for them was the fact that it would take some time before even Kevin Dale’s people could breach the server room.  The team knew that it was only a matter of time before the enemy did; Felicity and the others were defenseless sitting ducks in there. 

While the team had been working on an extraction plan – this time, under the Green Arrow’s leadership – Connor had helped Mia calm down.  But she couldn’t and wouldn’t calm down.  She couldn’t help but blame herself.  She had thought that the delay in reaching the last bomb before it remote-detonated had been the reason why this happened.  Had she and John neutralized the Deathstroke gangsters that engaged them, her mom and older brother, Zoe and her father, would not be in imminent danger.  Worse, she had been ashamed that the first thing her long-lost father had witnessed her doing was to put her mom in harm’s way.  By the time the team had been ready for briefing five minutes later, Connor had coaxed Mia into calming down and focusing on being part of the solution rather than wallowing in guilt and anger.

* * *

The extraction mission had been more than successful.  Not only had they been able to rescue Felicity and company, they had also been able to secure incriminating digital evidence against Kevin Dale and the remaining members of the Ninth Circle.  Being trapped inside the server room had been a blessing in disguise.  

Felicity and William had immediately uploaded the most pertinent proofs to the Internet sites of both the Glades P.D. and the official online news network of the city.  Everyone watching had witnessed never-before-seen video footage of the meeting between Emiko Queen and the top-ranking leaders of the terrorist group that used to run Eden Corp. but were now posing as board members of Galaxy One.  It showed how the hit on former mayor Pollard and the plot to murder thousands of civilians in Star City using poison gas all those years ago had been unanimously decided by all those present.  Another digital file showed how Dante, who turned out to be the father of Kevin Dale, had murdered Emiko some years ago in front of the fellow leaders of the Ninth Circle after she had dismally reported that, although she had succeeded in locating and killing Noah Kuttler a.k.a. “The Calculator,” she had failed to locate and kill the veteran cyber-vigilante’s partner and daughter, Felicity Smoak-Queen.  The other leaders of the Ninth Circle had been terribly displeased at Emiko’s dismal failure to eliminate Oliver Queen’s wife and get the other cyber-vigilante off their back, for it also meant that their goal of abducting Queen’s daughter and raising the child as one of them had still been beyond reach.  There had also been other evidences obtained, including a comprehensive list of all remaining Ninth Circle members, assets, and assassins in the country and overseas. 

Coupled with Mayor Rene Ramirez’s testimony, all of these proofs had prompted the Glades P.D. to make arrests in the days that followed, aided by the vigilantes, of course – and not just in Star City, but also in Central City, Gotham City, and in other places.  Even retired General Stewart had pulled some strings in order to get the DIA to help in rounding up the suspects and in organizing manhunts for the known terrorists and assets in the country and abroad.  The Glades P.D. and the DIA had assured the team that the evidences they had obtained were more than sufficient to convince a jury of the crimes of the members of the terrorist organization and their accomplices, as well as to clear the charges against the crime-fighting vigilantes that had gone underground for nearly two decades.  Rene had seen this as his chance at redemption and was willing to testify and go to prison for allying himself with Emiko and Eden Corp. (which later became Galaxy One) all those years ago.  Zoe had been somewhat devastated that her father was going to serve time, but she’d expressed pride in her father for finally choosing to do the right thing.

* * *

As for the extraction mission, Connor, Mia, and Roy had been the ones sent to retrieve Felicity and the others from the server room that night while Oliver and the others kept all of Kevin Dale’s goons at bay.  It was a good thing Felicity had taken control of the army of soldiers with advanced scanning helmets from inside the server room, because Oliver, John, Dinah, and the others would not have stood a chance against those if they had been released.  Roy had had no trouble locating Alena Whitlock inside the building, and he had aggressively and immediately forced her to hack the system and lift the lockdown on the server room.  As soon as the two-feet-thick metal and concrete door, which separated Connor and Mia from Felicity and the others had opened, Mia had rushed into her mother’s arms in relief.

“Mom!” Mia had cried out, crashing into her mother’s arms.  “You’re okay.  I’m so glad to see you,” she had said, as William had joined in the group hug.

“That’s a first,” Felicity had responded with a relieved chuckle, earning a glare from her daughter.  “I was just kidding,” she had said, smiling at Mia.  “Thanks for getting us out.”

Mia had smiled back at Felicity.  “Come on, we have to go.”  With a twinkle in her eye, she had added, “And it’s not just because we don’t have much time before Kevin Dale’s goons get here.  There’s something… actually _someone_ waiting for you that I’m sure you’d really love to meet.”

Felicity had had no time to question her daughter, even though she had been curious as to whom Mia had been referring to.  She and the others had followed Mia’s lead until they had safely fled from the huge building, the zip-tied Alena Whitlock in tow.  They all had gotten into the van and proceeded to the secret lair to meet up with the rest of the team where it was safe.

Down in the lair, Felicity, Mia, William, and the others who had arrived there first had waited for the other members of the team to turn up.  Mia had told William in private that their dad had mysteriously reappeared and rescued her and John Diggle earlier, and that he was on his way back there with the rest of the team.  They had agreed not to tell Felicity, wanting for their mom to be pleasantly surprised (if not shocked) to see him. 

Shocked did not even begin to describe Felicity’s reaction to seeing Oliver come down the stairs in his emerald green splendor.  The moment she had recognized who the older man with cropped silver-gray hair and handsome stubble was, her knees had buckled; William and Mia had made sure to steady her, for she looked like she’d been ready to faint on the spot.  Locking eyes with her beloved husband as tears welled up in her eyes and love flooded her heart, time had stood still.

Felicity had remained rooted on the spot and unable to move, her children flanking her.  As the team of vigilantes that had congregated in the lair retreated to the sides to clear a path for Oliver, he had made his way towards her, tears pooling in his eyes as well.  When he had stood just a couple of feet in front of her, Felicity had finally found the words.  With trembling voice, she whispered, “Oliver, hi.” 

It hadn’t mattered that her husband had only one arm to pick her up and hold her close; she hadn’t even noticed it until later.  It hadn’t mattered that they now both had wrinkled faces, their skin and hair bearing witness of how much they had aged with the passing of time and the troubles of life taking their toll on them both.  It hadn’t mattered that twenty years and the demands of the multiverse had kept them apart.  The only thing that had mattered at that moment was that the love of her life was alive, and he was now within her reach.

“Hi,” Oliver had whispered back.  He temporarily dropped his perfectly fixed gaze on his lovely wife to look at her left hand.  A delightful little smile appeared on his gorgeously aged face as he’d remarked, “You still wear it.”

“Never left my finger,” Felicity had replied sweetly.

Oliver had taken the last two steps to close their gap as he reached up with his hand to cup her cheek.  “You haven’t changed a bit.  Still as beautiful as I remember.”

Felicity had leaned into his calloused palm as her eyes closed for a second to relish the touch she’d missed for far too long.  A tear had fallen from her cheek to his palm, just as she had sighed and said, “You came back.”

“Always… A promise is a promise,” Oliver had replied, remembering the promise he’d made to her a few months after they were married. 

When the Monitor had come to collect on the deal he’d struck to save Barry Allen’s and Kara Danvers’ lives, he hadn’t been as certain as he used to be that he’d come back to her safe and sound.  The stranger had not given him any assurance that he would live through the battle and return to his family.  So, Oliver hadn’t wanted to give his wife false hopes.  The best thing he could leave her was the promise that he would do everything in his power to come back to her and their children.  The battle had been won, and the next one after that, and every other battle in the last twenty years (on Earth’s time) that he’d been obliged to fight as a selfless hero (including the one when he’d lost his left arm). 

When the Monitor had informed him that he’d won his fair share of battles to help restore the balance of the multiverse and that it was an opportune time to return to his world, Oliver had had mixed emotions.  Surely he had wanted nothing more than to return to his family; nevertheless, he’d also feared that Felicity might have already moved on with her life.  He’d feared that if and when he returned, it would be too late for _them_.  But like he’d learned in several occasions in the past, he could be wrong. 

And he was.  For quite the contrary, Felicity had kept her vow.  Now that he’d come back to her, and seeing how she’d remained faithful to the love they shared, as well as kept her promise to do everything she could to protect their children, Oliver’s heart had soared with so much joy and pride.

And just like that, as if twenty years had been merely a second, Oliver’s lips had captured Felicity’s in the most affectionate, passionate kiss.  Unlike William, who had reminisced the many times he’d witnessed his parents’ public displays of affection as a boy, Mia had been in complete awe as she watched her parents’ ardor-filled reunion, witnessing for the very first time the beauty of a love bigger than the multiverse that could not permanently keep them apart.

* * *

_Three months later, on the front porch of their house in the woods just outside Bloomfield…_

“Are you sure there is nothing we can do to convince you to go back to Star City with us?” William asked Oliver.

“Absolutely nothing,” Felicity quickly responded in her husband’s behalf. 

“Are you sure?” Mia asked this time. 

“I’ve been trying to talk Mom into helping me design and engineer a digitally enhanced prosthetic limb especially for you.  My company can help, maybe even use the innovation to get Smoak Tech back on its feet,” William suggested.

Oliver answered definitively, “Thank you, but yes, we’re sure about this.  I believe our vigilante days are over and it’s time to hang up the hood.  You and your brother, Zoe, Connor, and the Canaries… you are the new generation of heroes that the city needs.  Our time as vigilantes has come to an end.”  He smiled at his daughter and son as he pulled Felicity closer to his right side. 

“Your dad and I are perfectly content right here.  Retirement has been long overdue… and very much needed.  The effects of menopause are starting to take its toll on this old lady,” Felicity added with a chuckle, wrapping her arm around her husband’s middle.  Oliver gave her a gentle squeeze to reassure her that the symptoms she spoke about did not bother him at all.

“Be careful out there, and watch each other’s backs,” Oliver reminded their children.  He looked straight into William’s eyes to make sure his son understood his responsibility as the older sibling.

“I don’t need him to babysit me,” Mia retorted, rolling her eyes at her dad’s suggestion.

William was quick to comment, side-eyeing his younger sibling, “Of course you don’t.  You’ve already got ‘Agent’ Hawke on that detail.”

“Hey!” Mia exclaimed, digging an elbow into his brother’s side.  William winced even though the calculated gesture of protest was not that painful.

“Alright, knock it off!” Felicity said, raising her voice as if she were breaking up a fight between two kids.

“Seriously, you two make a great team,” Oliver remarked, reaching for his daughter and laying his hand on her shoulder.

“Partners,” Felicity affirmed them, giddy with excitement, “like Green Arrow and Overwatch, version 2.0, but better.”

Oliver and Felicity gave each of their children a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek. 

Mia lingered in her father’s embrace a little longer.  She cherished the past few months that she had spent getting to know her dad and her older brother more.  They’d spent most days either working out and sparring or making meals together, and most nights playing virtual games and binge-watching old movies and cable TV series from their parents’ era.  Mia had had a blast, finally letting her guard down and enjoying the reunited family that she had been deprived of for the past two decades.

But more than that, she had watched her father closely and seen firsthand what kind of person he truly was.  All her life she’d wondered what her daddy was really like, and she only got bits and pieces from the family and friends who had known him in the past.  Now, she was grateful that she got a second chance to find the answers herself, and the answers keep blowing her mind away day after day.  Her mom was right: her dad loved them with all his heart.  William was right: her dad was a gentle, caring person even if he could scare and subdue criminals and villains by his strength and skill.  Her Aunt Nyssa was right: her dad was an extraordinary and honorable man who has become an inspiration to many despite his very dark past.  Her Uncle Roy and Aunt Dinah were right: her dad was a changed man who knew what it meant to put others before himself and who was capable of helping others find their purpose and become better versions of themselves.  Her Uncle John was right: her dad was someone who had lived through so much pain and yet has come out victorious and stronger than before.  Even Connor, who had only ever had secondhand information about the Green Arrow, was right, too: her dad was a wonderful, loyal friend and a dependable, brilliant leader with a single-minded focus.  Every single one of them had known Oliver Queen as a selfless hero, and in the little time Mia had spent with him, she had proven them right.  Who said one needed a lifetime to learn to love someone as much as she has now come to love her dad?

Just before Oliver and Felicity sent off Mia and William, they handed their children a loaded mini cassette player.

“What’s in it?” Mia asked.

Oliver replied, “Glades P.D. and the DIA crossed out everyone in the list that we got from the Eden Corp. data base.  All known terrorists and associates of the Ninth Circle have been arrested…”

“But…?  There’s a _but_ coming, right?” Mia asked a second time.

Felicity answered, “But some of those who were in police custody have managed to have charges dropped based on either circumstantial evidence or technicalities.  And… the Feds offered Alena Whitlock a deal… witness protection in exchange for the names of other Ninth Circle associates and accomplices she knows of, which aren’t on the list we got.”

“How many more are there?” William asked.

“Enough names to fill about two minutes of recording on that mini cassette tape,” Felicity replied.

“Oh…” Mia muttered.

“You might want to start your career of saving the city with that,” Oliver challenged them. 

Oliver sighed, thinking how his life had come full circle.  Many years ago, his father had given him a list and laid upon him the burden of righting the wrongs that he had made, marring the integrity of the Queen name.  That legacy had broken and damaged Oliver almost beyond repair.  This was a completely different list, though, the one that he was giving their children.  He was not passing on a legacy of guilt and shame; he was passing on a legacy of heroism to the next generation that had willingly taken on his mantle and earned it by sheer Courage, Compassion, Selflessness, and Loyalty.

William nodded.  Mia replied, “We’ll do our best.”

After one final group hug, Oliver and Felicity watched as their son and daughter crossed the lawn in front of the house and got into the car that would take them back to Star City.  When the vehicle was no longer in sight, Oliver turned to Felicity and looked at her with fondness.

“What?” she asked him with a curious smile on her face. 

He pulled her close to him and ran his hand up and down her back.  He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, and then her lips.  With a mischievous gleam in his eyes, he told her, “I was thinking… Kids are gone.  Maybe I’d like to challenge that thing you said about you going into menopause this early.”

Felicity couldn’t believe her ears.  “Oliver!”  She pushed against his chest to have a good look at his face and make sure he was merely teasing.  He was grinning like a lovesick fool.

“You can’t be serious,” she said, smirking and feigning protest.

“I can do it with one arm,” he reassured her with a wink.

Oliver pulled Felicity into him again for a kiss and then enthusiastically led her back into the house to make good on his challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it, folks! I hope you enjoyed this one. If you did, it would REALLY be nice to hear from you and to know why this was a satisfying or even just a fairly satisfying read. Now that it's the end, maybe you could take the time to review or comment.
> 
> [spoiler alert, for those who haven't watched 7x22 yet]
> 
> Honestly, I loved how Arrow ended Felicity's journey and Olicity's saga. Two reasons - neither of them really died, and they were reunited in the end. They got the happy ending they deserved after all! Yey! The only thing lacking for me was that Oliver and Felicity did not get the chance to be completely reunited and to enjoy their children in the future. How this spec fic ends is my way of rectifying that tiny dissatisfaction. Also, I didn't love the story line of the present-day finale as much. I felt like it was hurried, perhaps because they had to give more time to the lengthy epilogue. Understandable, but not very entertaining that way. The threat to the city did not seem urgent enough, the Team's response lacked resistance from the villains, and Emiko's demise at the hands of very newly introduced or underdeveloped antagonists was too quick. Well, so much for a review of the finale. Sorry about that!
> 
> Please let me know how this story was for you. It means a lot. I think this way we can help each other recover faster from the loss of Felicity Smoak and the impending end of one of the most epic television series of our time. Farewell, EBR! Best wishes to Arrow on its final season!

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so that's my take on what's going to happen in Season 8 that will eventually result to what's happening in the future based on what the flash-forwards are saying. As you may have noticed, I am of the opinion (and wish) that Oliver Queen is not going to die. The same goes for Felicity. Like many in the fandom, I want this family to be reunited and have a happy ending to honor Oliver's legacy.
> 
> I hope to post a new chapter every other day until we get to the seventh and final chapter. And then, I'm done. Thank you so much for reading this. It means A LOT.


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